MONTREAL — When last we saw Tiger Woods, he looked like a beaten man, with his golf game effectively in the dumpster and his confidence shattered like broken glass.

It was almost seven weeks ago at the PGA Championship — the last major of the season and a tournament he has won four times — that Woods not only missed the cut for the first time at the event, but did so by six shots.

Woods left the Atlanta Athletic Club ineligible for the FedExCup playoffs for the first time and told reporters he had “nothing to do but work on my game.”

Fast forward to this week, and here’s what Woods was saying: “Things are going great. I’m practising very hard. I’m playing as much as I possibly can. My training sessions are great. My strength has come back. My explosiveness has come back. I’m starting to get my feels back.”

His choice of the word “explosiveness” is intriguing, to say the least.

Is it possible his game has returned to the form it was when, as the world’s No. 1 player, he routinely blew away tournament fields with his deft shotmaking and mental grit? Has it suddenly come back via divine intervention? We ask, because the reality is Woods hasn’t played a single round of competitive golf since the PGA Championship.

But Woods and his game will be back in the spotlight — and under pressure — at next week’s Frys.com Open, where he will compete against a cast made up mostly of no-names in the second of the PGA Tour’s four regular-season ending tournaments in the fall series. Woods sits at No. 50 in the world rankings, a slide almost into oblivion that has been going on for nearly two years because of personal issues and what we call the Curse of Elin.

There has been a rash of injuries and a swing that has been unreliable, even at the best of times. All of this has contributed to the type of “explosiveness” we’ve seen through facial expressions, body language, cursing and occasional club tossing during the eight times Woods teed it up this season.

He has been a simmering powder keg set to blow up after each errant drive, wayward approach shot or missed three-foot putt. Those of us who can appreciate what Woods did so well for so long on the golf course can only hope the “explosiveness” he now boldly speaks of is a positive indication that he might be on the way back. But based on what we’ve seen lately, who would bet on it?

And imagine the fireworks if he misses the cut again.

Haas gets nod

As disturbing as Fred Couples’s decision to make Woods one of his two captain’s picks for the Presidents Cup was to us, we’re happy with his choice of Bill Haas to complete the 12-man U.S. squad. Haas deserved the spot even before winning the FedExCup playoff final, the Tour Championship, and it had nothing to do with the fact his father, Jay, is one of Couples’ assistant captains.

The 29-year-old Haas was one of the steadiest players on the PGA Tour all season, twice losing in playoffs before beating Hunter Mahan in extra holes at the FedEx Cup final, when it really mattered.

The $11.4 million US Haas took home for that victory, including a $10-million bonus for winning the FedExCup, was more than his father won in his entire PGA Tour career.

In addition to Haas, Woods and Mahan, the U.S. team that will take on the International squad Nov. 17-20 at Royal Melbourne in Australia includes Dustin Johnson, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson, Nick Watney, Bubba Watson, David Toms and Jim Furyk. There’s a chance Stricker, who is awaiting results of an MRI he underwent Tuesday on his ailing left arm, will have to give up his spot.

If so, PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley is most likely to be his replacement. The international team, under captain Greg Norman, will have Australians Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Jason Day and captain’s picks Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby; South Africans Charl Schwartzel, Retief Goosen and Els; South Koreans K.J. Choi, Kim Kyung-tae and Yang Yong-Eun; and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa.

He said it:

“The thing that bothered me the most was TW not calling Dustin and asking if he could talk to Joe. That’s the way it’s done. I’m a little disappointed with the way Tiger handled it. But I’m not surprised.” — Butch Harmon, former swing coach to Tiger Woods, on how Woods landed veteran caddy Joey LaCava after he had been with Dustin Johnson for less than a year.

Montreal Gazette

rphillips@montrealgazette.com

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

It wasn't so long ago that Landry Jones became engaged to Sooners women's basketball player Whitney Hand in an environment of athletic stars and a legacy of football greatness. It's just common to think of Jones as a popular star on campus and not a typical college student, but an Oklahoma personality quietly inheriting a celebrity status.

It's not a problem because he perpetuates tradition and Sooner Pride, the notions that gives a strong description for one of the storied programs in collegiate football, for winning seven national, 43 conference titles, amassing 44 bowl appearances and 152 All-Americans. There isn't another program as admirable as OU, given its mystique and greatness in previous history. And there isn't another Jones at Oklahoma, either -- the standout quarterback of this generation in program history.

He is the cornerstone for a demanding program, a school where the expectations are largely ballooned and meaningful verified as the nation's top gunslinger and predicted to polish in the colors of a crimson and cream uniform. But while he's battled through adversity and hardships no one ever imagined, Jones has stepped into the spotlight and is now an asset for the Sooners.

Of course, when he arrived at Oklahoma with the idea of prospering as a prospect from high school to suit up for the most coveted program in the Big 12, if not in Oklahoma, he took the No. 12 jersey in which it was the jersey he'd normally worn. The buzz as of recently, which would end the debate whether or not freshman Blake Bell would be named the starter, faded quickly when Stoops alluded to last season and said it was the first time Jones really was the starter, although he merely started 10 games while Sam Bradford was sidelined with a shoulder injury two years ago. He's not proven, all right, or more likely he's not an elite quarterback.

For those who've doubted Landry, he doesn't feel any trepidation or anxiety. It would be hard to replace someone better suited to heave passes and lead the Sooners into battle each weekend, the humbled, good-natured and fun-loving quarterback apt for the challenge. And now here he comes again, in position to have another wonderful season as the gunslinger when he led the nation in pass completions and ranked second nationally in passing yards and touchdown passes.

Sepp Blatter defied his critics, a barrage of corruption allegations and the combined efforts of the world media to insist that the organisation he has led into a deepening scandal was not in crisis, and that he is the man to lead Fifa to reform.