The golfing world will finally witness the return of the living legend Tiger Woods after a long nearly nine month wait. Woods the sports biggest name and possibly best player to ever step on a course missed the majority of the second half of the season following his miraculous win at the U.S Open to have surgery on his left knee. Tiger had just pulled off one of the most clutch performances of his career in where he drained birdies two days in a row on the 18th hole once at the end of regulation and once on the final hole of an 18 hole playoff to force the match into a double overtime type scenario. Woods finally edged out Rocco Mediate on the 19th hole to win his 14th Major of his career in one of the most exciting golfing showdowns in Major history. Soon as people could realize the significance of the win and the heroism from playing on nearly one leg, Woods announced his year was over with season ending surgery. Well winter has come and nearly gone and the Tiger has yet to be seen. Until now that is, Woods has made it official that he will return next Wednesday at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship. Not only will the PGA be revamped with the return of its biggest star, but all eyes will be on Woods to see how he performs on the knee that has plagued him for years. Major sportsbooks will be wide open on betting scenarios and prop bets in attempt to predict how one of the most popular athletes in the world will perform in his returning debut.

Tiger will make his return to in an event he has player very well in the past. Woods has won the WGC Accenture Match Play Tournament 3 different times in his career. This event is different than most as it breaks down the top 64 golfers in the world into a March Madness type tournament over 4 days. Lose one match and you are eliminated and players may be involved in two 18 hole matches in one day meaning that Tiger’s leg will have to be very healthy to hold up over the weekend. The Tournament will move to untamed ground as it moves to the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Arizona for the very first time. However, Tiger is usually the favorite no matter what course the PGA Tour attends. Woods return comes at a great time for the sport of Golf considering they have been hit hard by economic times and ratings plummeted during Woods’ absence from the sport. Tiger will return will be one of the most anticipated and widely viewed events of the season and it will be interesting to see how everything shakes out.

Woods numbers in the match play event speak volumes for his dominance over the sport. Tiger has played in 37 events in the WGC Match Play event throughout his career with a sporty 31-6 all-time record. Out of the 64 competitors to take the course next Thursday Davis Love III is has the 2nd most matches trailing Woods by 11 matches. Not to mention Tiger holds the most dominating Match Play Championship defeat in the event’s history when he beat Stewart Cink last season 8 and 7. Tiger also has won 15 of the 26 WGC events in his professional career. That means that Woods has won 57% of the WGC events he has entered, simply incredible. However, leading into next week’s event many have distorted views on how the superstar will perform. Many experts believe that it will take Woods some time to regain dominance after nearly missing the entire winter without swinging a club. Then again there are many like myself who believe if the man could win the U.S Open on one leg, then shouldn’t he be fine on two?

The betting props and odds have yet to be released at most sportsbooks for next week’s event, but rest assure there will be plenty of opportunities to place wagers in the midst of Tiger’s return. Bodog Sportsbook will have odds available for predicting how far Tiger will go and odds for each round he could get knocked out. Bodog already list Woods as already the leading favorite to win the Masters which is the first major of the year every April at an amazing 2/1 odds. In Golf, normally your favorites range in the 10/1 range, but 2/1 is simply amazing for peoples expectation of the best golfer on the planet. Tiger is also listed as a huge favorite to win the British Open that takes place in July standing at 9/4 odds. However, next week’s betting figures will offer a lot more opportunities for people looking to gamble on Tiger’s return. There will be odds at most sportsbooks for each match play and tons of prop bets. Tiger has almost been expected to come back in this Tournament and win hands down. That is a lot of expectation for a man who has not swung a club very much through the off-season fresh off serious surgery. However, many believe that Tiger will once again electrify the sports world in a way in which only he can. Then again are we building him up to a level above reality?