Fascinated by the fascination

There is golf on the TV up behind the bar this day, and, my lord, does that grass look green. It's a Friday afternoon in late February, and I'm in a place frequented by a lot of avid golfers. And so of course the Honda Classic is on from down there in Florida, having been switched over from NASCAR at a patron's request.

Everyone wants to know, see. Everyone wants to know how Tiger Woods is doing.

At the moment, he's working on a 71, and, at the bar, people perk up. He's going to make the cut! And he's only a handful of strokes back! And ...

And now it's three days later, and half the stories coming out of the Honda Classic are about Tiger Woods.

Who shot even par for the tournament.

Who finished 12th.

Whom everyone was still talking about anyway, ignoring Honda winner Justin Thomas, one of the many stellar young players who have helped make the PGA Tour deeper and more talented than it's been in perhaps 40 years.  But Thomas, you see, isn't Tiger. Thomas isn't The Man, or the Used To Be The Man, who still gets the biggest galleries and loudest roars -- someone was even blasting "Eye of the Tiger" out there Sunday, and everyone was singing along  -- even though he's pretty much just a pack rat anymore.

After all, he finished eight strokes back of Thomas, just ahead of the likes Derek Fathauer and Dominic Bozzelli (of whom you've surely heard ... OK, so not) and just behind Dylan Frittelli (ditto).  That's as face-in-the-crowd as you can get.

Except this face belongs to the greatest golfer of his generation. And so even though he's not that anymore -- even though he's just a 41-year-old guy with a bad back and one round in the 60s in the last three years -- he remains the biggest draw in the sport.

I find this fascinating, frankly. I find this continued Tiger Mania utterly compelling, considering that rationally it seems long past its expiration date.

Of course, rationality has nothing to do with it. It rarely does in sports.

And so here is a PGA Tour as stuffed with glittering young stars as perhaps it's ever been, and yet the clear focus of fans and media remains a player whose own star began to dim a good decade ago. To some extent this happened with Arnold Palmer, too, but not like this. Arnie's Army clung to the aging Palmer out of nostalgia, mostly. The continued fascination with the far-older-than-his-years Tiger clings more to the notion he could still be a consistent contender -- still be That Tiger, or something close to it.

And so finishing eight strokes behind as a face in the crowd prompted a lot of wild predictions this morning. Some people have Tiger winning multiple tournaments this year. Some people have him winning another major, even. And yet ...

And yet reality argues against it. Reality says it's a lot more likely he gets hurt again first.

Of course, if it did happen, it undisputedly would be the golf story of the year, and maybe the sports story of the year.  But that's the problem, see.

It would be the story of the year precisely because it's so unlikely. Tiger Mania or no Tiger Mania.