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When Tiger Woods drove his SUV into a fire hydrant and followed it up with a complete withdrawal from his sport, the golf world shuddered.

"What'll become of us?" wondered all of those whose wellbeing seemed linked to the star. "How will we survive without Tiger?"

Once the dust surrounding his sordid adventures settled, calmer minds looked to the past to see if there were any precedents.

Happily, they found several and it soon became obvious that golf is indeed bigger and better than any one player.

Think back. Byron Nelson won 11 tournaments in a row. This guy was real good but as soon as he accumulated enough money to buy a farm, he put his clubs in the closet and stayed home to pursue his true life-long dream.

Bobby Jones, the only player to win four majors in the same year, retired from golf in his early 30s due to poor health.

Despite the early retirement of these Tiger-like players, golf not only survived but grew.

To be clear, I'm glad to see Tiger back, for golf is better with him in it.

But the sport will never be dependent on him or on any other player.

Golf has survived the retirement of Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.

The jury is still out on who might be the best golfer of all time - and while Tiger is in the frame for that honour, so too are all of these great players. Once the golf world became used to Tiger not teeing it up, it began to focus on who did.

There are very fine golfers playing each week. If you saw the back nine of the Shell Houston Open this past Sunday, you would have been glued to the tube wondering what on earth Anthony Kim was doing. When he elected to hit driver off the deck on the back-nine par 5, when 3-wood, pitching wedge would practically have guaranteed birdie, I wanted to reach into the TV set and throttle him.

It was entertaining. A battle right down to the end with Vaughn Taylor and when Taylor birdied 18, you felt as though the golf gods were on his side.

Taylor needed to win to get into the Masters and, on 18, he left-edged a 15-footer into the hole for birdie, using body English that would have made Tiger proud.

Getting into the Masters is a life-long dream of Taylor's, driven by the fact the world's best event is played in his home town.

The combination of Taylor's Masters desire with Anthony Kim's seemingly reckless club and shot selection created drama that would have made even the most dedicated Tiger fan realise golf is alive and well and will continue to be so, with or without Tiger Woods.

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