Bill Murray stumbled into the back of a crowded conference room Tuesday just as Tiger Woods was wrapping up his media conference at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The "Caddyshack" star looked more confused than usual.
"Where's the other guy?" Murray asked.
Murray, as it turned out, was an hour late.
He was supposed to be at the interview table with D.A. Points, his partner last year when they won the pro-am. Points is perhaps the most overlooked defending champion at a PGA Tour event since Nick Price at Colonial in 2003.
"I got here and I got the program and I looked at the tickets and I thought, 'Wait a minute. Didn't I win?' " Points said. "And there are pictures of Bill everywhere. I'm driving down the highway, I see a billboard. There's Bill. There's Tiger. I'm like, 'Where am I?' "
It's the only PGA tournament Points has won, so he was a little disappointed, but he gets it.
"The celebrities obviously make this event larger-than-life sometimes," he said.
That's the effect Woods has this week. It's not unusual for him to start a PGA Tour season along the Pacific coast, although it's usually at Torrey Pines. And there is a certain magic about Woods and Pebble Beach, which has been a big part of his career even though he has won only twice there.
The first was the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Woods was seven shots out of the lead with seven holes to play, and he seemed to have no chance until he holed a wedge for eagle on the 15th, nearly holed another shot on the 16th and beat a fast-fading Matt Gogel.
"I was just trying to somehow get in it," Woods recalled. "All of a sudden, boom! Three shots, two holes, I'm back in the ballgame."
It was even more significant because that was his sixth consecutive PGA Tour victory.
Then came the greatest single feat of his career that summer in the U.S. Open, a major where Woods was at the apex of his game. On a course so difficult that no one else broke par, he shot 12-under 272 and won by 15 shots.
Now the mystique has given way to curiosity.
Woods still draws the biggest crowds and drives attention in golf, but no one can be sure what to expect. There is unpredictability about Woods that wasn't there before.
That, too, might be changing.
Woods began his 2012 season in Abu Dhabi, where he was tied for the lead going into the last day but was outplayed by Robert Rock. What some might see as more evidence that Woods can no longer be the player he was, Woods sees as real progress.
His golf and his life have been a series of stops and starts since his last tour victory at the 2009 Australian Masters.
Divorce. New swing coach. Injuries. New caddie.
Finally, his game has been trending up in the past few months.
"I feel very much at peace where I'm at," Woods said. "I had to make some changes, and that took time, and I'm starting to see the results of that now, which is great. Everything is headed in the right direction."
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