"He’s got history on his side; no golfer has been hotter in August."

Robert Lusetich thinks that Tiger has arrived at the best part of the schedule to revive his game, though he also offers some less than flattering numbers to suggest Tiger's game has a ways to go.

The statistics don’t lie. In 2008, Woods made an astonishing 93.5 percent of putts from 5 to 15 feet. This year he’s converting only 44.3 percent.

But it’s not just that the putts aren’t falling.

He’s not been hitting approaches very close.

From 100 to 125 yards, where Woods in ‘08 found the putting surface just under 90 percent of the time, he’s now at a very pedestrian 61 percent, falling from first to 192nd on the Tour.

And where he led the field in proximity to the hole from that distance -- 12’5” in ‘08 -- this year he’s not only hitting significantly fewer greens, but he’s more wayward with those he does hit, averaging 18’8” from the hole.

Then there’s scrambling, where Woods regularly paces the Tour. In ’08 he was getting up and down 45.5 percent of the time from inside 30 yards. This year he’s converting only 14.3 percent of the time, dropping to 194th on Tour.

Meanwhile Steve Elling takes issue with Tiger's late entry into Firestone as he was committing to Dubai six months in advance.

Tiger Woods generated a minor headline last week when he finally got around to committing to play in this week's Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club, where he has won a tour-record-tying seven professional tournaments. As has been his maddening custom over the years, Woods waited until a couple of days before the commitment deadline -- if that -- to formally announce his intention to play, a selfish pattern of behavior that largely deprives PGA Tour events of the ability to market his participation to fans (which, we are left to assume, is how he prefers it). Yet Woods has already announced that he will enter events in Australia and Dubai over the coming months. What do those events have in common, you ask, other than they are not PGA Tour-sanctioned? He will receive massive appearance fees just for showing up. Woods is clearly trying to rehab his image with corporate America, given that some reports claim he lost more than $20 million in endorsement income over the past eight months. He might want to show a bit more consideration toward the stateside tournaments and fans at home that made him a millionaire to begin with.