Ron Kroichick

The loyalists will say this means Tiger Woods is sure to resume his dominance. The haters will bemoan golf writers who, they insist, are fixated on a flawed man and past-his-prime player.

The realists fall somewhere in between.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tom Lehman begins the Schwab Cup Championship in firm control of the season Champions Tour points race. There are various jumbled scenarios on what it would take for Mark Calcavecchia or another player to catch Lehman, but the leader put the whole thing in simpler terms.

"All I know is, if Tom Lehman plays the way he's capable of playing, he's going to be a happy guy on Sunday, win or lose," Lehman said.

Tiger Woods naturally will come under the most scrutiny in this week's Frys.com Open, as he plays a PGA Tour event for the first time in nearly two months and tries, once again, to rediscover his game.

The man on the spot more than anyone other than Woods might be Joe LaCava, and he won't hit a single shot.

LaCava will make his debut as Woods' caddie at CordeValle, unofficially in today's pro-am (weather permitting) and Thursday in the tournament's opening round. Woods' decision to hire LaCava, finalized last week, unfolded like a presidential cabinet appointment: shrouded in mystery, loaded with gravity, dissected in detail.

Cornerbacks such as Carlos Rogers of the San Francisco 49ers sometimes must wonder if football really is the ultimate team game.

Rogers watches an opposing wide receiver, his assignment, split out farther than usual. Rogers knows his safety is not much help, stationed way back in the middle of the field. The other two or three receivers line up on the other side, leaving Rogers in glaring, inescapable solitude.

New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera absolutely is the greatest relief pitcher in baseball history -- but not because he pocketed his 602nd career save Monday night, lifting him atop the all-time list. (He added No. 603 on Wednesday.)

Rivera is the best ever because he had the longest stretch of mind-blowing dominance. He prospered in the postseason, becoming the modern-day Mr. October. He made opponents feel as if they had no chance to erase a ninth-inning deficit.

If saves are a true measure of greatness -- and they're not, clearly -- then John Franco and Billy Wagner were better than Dennis Eckersley. By the same barometer, Jose Mesa and Todd Jones were better than Rich Gossage and Bruce Sutter.

Dustin Johnson won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February 2009 when rain washed out the final round. He was 24 then, clearly talented but mostly unproven, and a subsequent San Francisco Chronicle story described him as a "low-wattage" winner. It was an accurate depiction at the time.

One tournament official good-naturedly chided us, predicting Johnson wouldn't stay low-wattage for long.

Just imagine if Rory McIlroy already had four major titles, stood on the brink of the career Grand Slam, climbed into contention nearly every time he teed off and was committed to playing in the United States every chance he had.

Then he would be Yani Tseng.