It was 15 years ago this week that Tiger Woods made his professional debut in Milwaukee, stepping to the podium with the words "Hello, World" and winning twice in his first seven starts.
That was only the start of a dizzying ride -- one that includes 69 other PGA Tour wins, 14 majors, a wraparound Grand Slam, bouts with injuries and the sex scandal that brought so much crashing down 21 months ago.
Asked on Golf Channel's "Morning Drive" what advice he might have told his younger self that day in Milwaukee, Woods was direct: "Life is very difficult."
"When I first walked on that tee, I didn't realize the magnitude of what I was embarking on," he continued. "To embark on something that's a global sport where the media attention is very different than what we had (in college) at Stanford, it was something that was eye-opening."
Truth be told, few could have foreseen the full impact Woods has made on the sport. And yes, he acknowledged, there have been mistakes he's had to own up for.
"But it's been a lot of fun to be able to chase your dreams," he concluded, "and do something that I love to do each and every day."
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Master of timing
Vijay Singh was a missing man for much of the summer, sidelined by back woes that kept one of the PGA Tour's ironmen from even teeing it up. Now after top-five finishes at Greensboro and The Barclays, he's in the thick of the FedEx Cup race.
The Fijian now stands eighth, with a good chance to move up even more on a TPC Boston layout where he's won twice and notched two other top-four starts.
"I'm feeling good," said Singh, who found relief in Germany for a bulging disc. "I can be more aggressive and not really worry about how I'm going to wake up the next morning."
Tap-ins
The U.S. Solheim Cup selection process gets a tweak for 2013, cutting back to eight qualifiers from a two-year points system and awarding the next two berths based on world rankings. Had the system been used this year, captain's pick Vicky Hurst would have taken one of the world ranking slots, bumping Christina Kim into the wild-card pool. ... Rocco Mediate and John Daly cross over to the Nationwide Tour for this week's stop outside Pittsburgh. It's the second straight Nationwide start for Daly, who tied for 32nd last week in Knoxville, Tenn.
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