Four months after his epic US Open victory, Tiger Woods returned to Torrey Pines on Monday without a limp, and without his golf clubs. Out of action since beating Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole playoff for his 14th career major, Woods came back to Torrey Pines to caddy for the winner of the “Tee Off with Tiger” online competition. Hopping from a golf cart, Woods walked up to 59-year-old John Abel, doffed his cap and extended his right hand. “I hear you're looking for a caddie. I'm Tiger Woods - pleased to meet you.” Showing no signs of his season-ending knee surgery a week after the US Open, Woods wore a green caddie's bib inscribed with Abel's name as he guided him around the back nine of the South Course, where he has won six times in the Buick Invitational and once in a US Open he called his best ever. Woods was in character from the minute he drove up to the 10th tee, on cue from a video crew that recorded every one of Abel's shots. Reporters and photographers from two media outlets, including The Associated Press, were allowed to watch on the 10th and 18th holes. Woods drove the cart. He handed clubs to Abel, then wiped them off with a towel and put them back in the bag. He squatted to line up putts and tended the pin. He warned how fast the greens were, then chuckled as Abel five-putted the 10th for a quadruple-bogey 8. Woods gave the best local advice anyone could ever hope to get on the tough course on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. “It was fun,” said Woods, who once caddied for former Stanford teammate Jerry Chang. Abel, from West Berlin, New Jersey, said his round went better than expected. “I wasn't as nervous after maybe the third or fourth hole,” he said. “Nerves come into it, I don't care who you are, and these greens are unbelievable. Tiger was telling me that they're actually 3 feet slower than what they played for the Open. “It was just such a hoot to play with him,” said Abel, who regularly shoots in the 90s. “He showed me things I never even thought about. Like when he walks into a sand trap, he feels with his feet. It was just so neat. it really was.” Abel said the one thing he took away about Woods was “how much of a down-to
