Tiger Woods and Don Draper: Back In Business

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is back in business, as “Mad Men” kicked off its long-anticipated fifth season last evening on AMC.

And so was Tiger Woods, who started pulling magic iron shots from his pixie-dusted golf bag yesterday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, leaving Irish lad Graeme McDowell babbling in his Tiger mid-iron dust.

Tiger Woods is back, ladies and gentlemen, and the Master’s is just around the corner!

I’ll spare you all the nitty gritty details, but if you’re a golf fan, and you watched his final round yesterday, you know of which I speak.

The old Tiger Woods has been replaced by a newer, more mature Tiger Woods, one who can maintain the celebrated spontaneity of golf while working through a tough track like Bay Hill with utter precision.

Though McDowell’s putter was zoning in from the next Florida county yesterday, it still wasn’t a match for  Tiger’s laser precise approach irons, the kind that can make a grown mid-teen handicapper weep.

Who needs to sink long putts when you can hit a Nike ball 185 yards and put it four feet from the hole for a virtual gimme??!

I just hope Arnold Palmer is feeling better. The golfing “King” and Bay Hill host had to be taken to the hospital due to some blood pressure issues yesterday afternoon and so wasn’t there to offer up Woods’ his seventh Bay Hill title.

But that’s okay…today, Arnold’s expected to be resting at home, and Tiger’s back in the hunt and celebrating his first PGA Tour victory in two and a half years.

Much as many of us liked beating up on him while he was gone, we couldn’t be happier to see him not only playing, but fiercely competitive, once again.

As for my thoughts about Don Draper and company…well, that one will require further fermentation before I can offer any cogent comment.  Shaken, not stirred.