Tuesday's poll: Who is the greatest golfer of all time?

Arnold Palmer recently turned 80, and most people consider him one of the best golfers of all time, but is he the greatest? Or is it one of the obvious answers, Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods? What about Sam Snead, who won the most tournaments in PGA Tour history? Or Ben Hogan?

Vote in  today's poll and let your voice be heard, then leave a comment letting us know why you voted the way you did.

-- Houston Mitchell

Tiger Woods is happy with his season

Tiger Woods made it clear today that his 2009 season -- which included six victories on the PGA Tour but no wins in any of the four major championships -- was, in his mind, an unqualified success.

"Absolutely it's been a successful year," Woods said in a video conference to announce the field for the Chevron World Challenge, the tournament he hosts at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. "To have gone through what I did for eight months, and then come back to be as consistent as I have been ... as a whole it was a huge success. I'm really looking forward to next year."

Woods, who has long said that performance in major championships is an important measuring stick of a player's career, had reconstructive knee surgery after winning the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in LaJolla in 2008. He missed the rest of that season and played his first event this year in February at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

Woods said he had not considered his schedule for 2010 and gave no indication whether he would play at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. Woods has not played the L.A. event since 2006 and acknowledged that Jerry West, who has been hired by the tournament to elevate its profile, had contacted him about playing. Woods has never won the regular tour stop at Riviera.

-- Mike James

Photo: Tiger Woods with caddie Steve Williams. Credit: Tannen Maury / European Pressphoto Agency

Tiger Woods is greater than Roger Federer

Both are undeniably great players. But who is greater: Tiger Woods or Roger Federer?

According to my sabermetrics tally, it's Woods.

Why? Let's compare the gap between Woods and Federer and the second-best player in their respective sports.

Woods has won 14 Grand Slam tournaments, and is within reach of Jack Nicklaus' all-time record of 18. Federer has 15 Grand Slam singles titles, the best in tennis history.

But let's check out the record of their rivals. In golf, there's a logjam among Woods' contemporaries: Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington all have won three majors. So that's a gap of 11 majors between Woods and any of his rivals.

Meanwhile, in tennis, Rafael Nadal is the obvious second-best in the Federer era, and Nadal has won six Grand Slam singles titles -- a gap of nine titles behind Federer.

For me, that makes it obvious. Federer is great, but Woods is greater.

-- Barry Stavro

Photo: Roger Federer and Tiger Woods in 2006. Credit: Andrew Redington / Getty Images

What to watch, or how not to leave the house on a Saturday

What to do? Have some plans but, but, how to leave the television behind? It's an eclectic sports fan's dream day.

We've already got the PGA on Channel 2, Tiger Woods up four and he hasn't started yet. Channel 4 has world track and field from Berlin and to me nothing is better than being taken, because of sports, to a new place, and to me Berlin is a new place. Right after track on Channel 4 from Dallas (OK, don't necessarily want sports to take me to Dallas) is men's gymnastics and on good authority (OK, the men were on Universal Sports yesterday), it is the men who have been the stars of this USA Gymnastics nationals (the women will be on Channel 4 at 8 p.m.). Check out the high bar routines of Jon Horton and Danell Leyva.

Whew, but there's more. A quadruple header of Little League World Series games on ESPN. Women's tennis, NASCAR, men's tennis on ESPN2. On the NFL Network is a quadruple-header of preseason games: Arizona at Pittsburgh (now), and maybe a chance to check out the progress of Matt Leinart for USC fans; followed by Atlanta at Detroit followed by the Chicago Bears at Buffalo; followed by Seattle at San Diego.

Oh, yeah, baseball too, Giants at the Mets on Channel 11; Dodgers (the sky is falling, right) at Arizona on Channel 9 at 5 p.m.; Angels at Baltimore at 4 p.m. Fox West.

You want soccer? Chivas is at Red Bull New York on Fox West at 4 p.m. or even cooler, a 2010 World Cup qualifier from Baku, Azerbaijan, with Germany against Azerbaijan. That's at 1:30 on the Fox Soccer Channel.

Yep, not leaving the house today.

Diane Pucin

Photo: Tiger Woods plays a shot on the tenth hole during the final round of the PGA championship on Sunday in Chaska, Minnesota. Photo credit: Stuart Franklin / Getty Images.

PGA Championship no monster in the early going

Hazeltine National, site of the PGA Championship and a course that can play more than 7,600 yards, isn't turning out to be as difficult a challenge as some might have thought.

Michael Bradley and Alviro Quiros are the early first-round leader, both still on the course,  at four under par after , and as of about noon Central time, there were 23 players under par.

Lurking one stroke behind? Tiger Woods, who has steadily moved through the field, just getting his third birdie on his 11th hole (he started on No. 10).

Woods, of course, has not won a major championship this year and were he not to win this weekend, it would be his first season without a major victory since 2004.

With this start, though, he could change that. He's golf's best front-runner ever, particularly in majors.

-- Mike James

Photo: Tiger Woods hits out of a bunker and onto the 15th green during the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday. Credit: Tannen Maury / EPA

Shocker: Tiger Woods favored to win U.S. Open!

OK, so it's hardly a shocker. But Tiger Woods, after his victory in the Memorial tournament two weeks ago demonstrated that he has fully recovered from the knee surgery that sidelined him for nine months, is the runaway favorite to win the U.S. Open this week at Bethpage State Park in New York.

Woods, who won the Open the last time it was played at Bethpage, in 2002, is listed as the 7-4 favorite by British bookmakers William Hill. That relegates everyone else to long shot status.

The second choice is the man who finished second to Woods in the 2002 Open, Phil Mickelson, at 14-1. Mickelson has finished second four times in the Open.

Woods is the Open's defending champion, having won at Torrey Pines a year ago despite a knee that caused him pain throughout. He had surgery shortly thereafter.

Now, much to the dismay of his fellow competitors, he's ready to go.

How much does Tiger Woods winning matter to television?

Apparently Tiger Woods matters 100%. That's what the CBS television ratings showed Monday.

CBS Sports' final-round coverage of the Memorial Tournament that saw Woods come from behind to win for his fourth time at the tournament started by Jack Nicklaus recorded a 100% gain from the same coverage a year ago. Tiger's one-shot win over Jim Furyk had an overnight household rating/share of 3.6/9. Last year's rating was 1.8/4 when the event was won by Kenny Perry and where Woods did not play.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Tiger Woods hits out of the bunker on the fifth hole in the final round of the Memorial Tournament. Credit: Frank Victores/US Presswire.

Tiger Woods and the NBA Finals

Tiger Woods grew up in Southern California, a devoted fan of the Lakers.

He now lives in Florida, a season-ticket holder to Orlando Magic games.

So you might imagine he'd be a little conflicted about which team to support in the NBA Finals.

"I'm really torn about the NBA finals," he wrote in his monthly newsletter. "I grew up a die-hard Los Angeles Lakers fan, but have season tickets to Orlando Magic games. Hopefully, it will be a great series."

Tough to tell whether a Lakers victory or a Magic victory would be greater in Woods' eyes. He has always played his positions close to the vest, and he's not changing character on this topic.

Either way, he won't be able to get to Games 1 and 2 in L.A. He's playing in the Memorial Tournament this week in Ohio.

-- Mike James

Photo: Tiger Woods at Game 6 of the Magic-Cavaliers series. Credit: Elsa / Getty Images. 

Tiger and Nicklaus on Golf Channel

 

As part of its coverage of the Memorial golf tournament next week, the Golf Channel will televise the Memorial Skins Game on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Anthony Kim, Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry and Camilo Villegas will compete. The players will be miked and will play in two nine-hole skins games. The $100,000 prize money will go to the charity The First Tee Foundation.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus share a laugh at the 2003 Presidents Cup. Credit: Ted S. Warren / Associated Press

Tiger Woods makes a statement

Tiger Woods, playing in the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte, N.C., for the first time since winning the tournament in 2007, opened with a seven-under-par 65 today to take the early lead in the tournament.

Woods played the front nine (his final nine holes) in a blistering six-under 30 to tie the course record. The 65 is the lowest round for Woods since the Buick Invitational last year, a span of more than 15 months.

Think he's back?

So much for the concern that his swing adjustments after nine months away from the game because of knee surgery are an issue.

Woods is the last person the other players in the field want to see atop the leaderboard. He's probably the greatest front-runner in the history of the game, as his 14-for-14 record in major championships when entering the final round with at least a share of the lead shows.

--Mike James

Photo: Tiger Woods his his second shot on the 15th hole in the opening round of the Quail Hollow Championship. Credit: Streeter Lecka / Getty Images.