Woods finished with a 1 over 281 but was happy about his outing after having not played since April. Next up for Woods is the PGA Championship this week in Atlanta and a first two round paring with Padraig Harrington and Davis Love III.

By KEVIN CHILL HEARD

Managing Editor

Tiger Woods made his return to professional golf last week at Akron’s Firestone course, while Australian golfer Adam Scott claimed a commanding 17 under par 263 win at the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational Golf Championship.

It would seem though, that Scott’s caddie Steve Williams wanted to claim all the glory and sound bites.

While Tiger Woods, the seven-time champ at the Akron’s World Golf Championship, sought to shake off the rust of a four month lay-off due to injury, all eyes and ears ended up on the drama his jilted ex-caddie Steve Williams stirred up.

Williams spent a lot of the time preceding the Akron tournament disputing his former boss’s version of how he got the boot. After caddying for Scott’s first-time win at the World Golf Championship, Williams grabbed headlines proclaiming, “It was the biggest win of my life.”

Behaving as if he thought handing Tiger his sand wedge for millions of dollars was a lifetime job, the forlorn bag handler has a short memory. In his 12 year gig with Tiger, Williams was on hand to see Woods win 13 majors, 16 world titles, 72 wins world-wide (many in spectacular fashion) and a record setting dismantling of the field at the 2001 Masters.

Showing flashes of his former self, Woods struggled at times but finished strong with three birdies on his last four holes. Woods felt and looked good at the end.

Of his last four holes, he sunk a 15-foot putt on the 15th, a wedge to within 4 feet of the hole on the 16th and a 15-footer on the 17th.

At the press conference Woods stated, “It’s nice for me to get out there in this competitive atmosphere, no matter how I was playing, just to figure out how to score, because I haven’t been forced to score,” he said. “At home, playing money games with my buddies is just not the same. Being out here and being forced to have to post a score, hit shots ... that’s a different deal.”

Woods finished with a 1 over 281 but was happy about his outing after having not played since April. Next up for Woods is the PGA Championship this week in Atlanta and a first two round paring with Padraig Harrington and Davis Love III.

As for what the future holds for Woods’ former bag lugger with a bad attitude… we shall see.