FanHouse JeevMilkhaSingh

Tiger Woods has played in The Players Championship 12 times, and has never broken 70 in any of his first rounds. On a calm Thursday that gave up some very red numbers, Woods continued his trend of taking a mild approach, carding a 1-under 71 on an up-and-down day.

Woods' round was highlighted with an approach shot on the par-5 16th hole that ended up three feet away for a kick-in eagle. Tiger followed that up with a solid 9-iron on the 17th hole's island green to just outside 10 feet, but a nasty horseshoe left Woods with just another par.

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Sebastian Junger wrote a non-fiction book about a 1991 Halloween Nor'easter that was, as you probably know, known as "The Perfect Storm". Play just started at Augusta National in the 2009 Masters (the gentleman above starts his day at 1:52 PM ET), but the story lines are quickly adding up to what could quickly become a Perfect Storm at Augusta. In fact, could the story lines at this year's Masters make it the most memorable Masters ever? Let's dive in.

You hear a lot about Phil Mickelson and his short game, which he's able to keep relevant more from muscle memory (the brain is a muscle, right?) than from any recent success he's had. His short game is fabulous, sure, but it seems that people speak more about the crazy shots he has pulled off over his career than the simple ones he's missed of late.

Well, on Thursday at the WGC-CA Championship, Phil's short game was back on, and I mean on. On a day people were focused, once again, on Tiger Woods returning to the golf world, this time in a stroke-play event, Mickelson reminded everyone that he was still around too. Phil went out on his front nine in a mediocre 35, that included a chip-in par on the par-3 4th hole, but went bananas on the back, making six birdies that included consecutive chip-ins to close his round.

Some might consider that a deceptive headline. See, the point of it is to get people to think "Oh Wow, Phil Mickelson must really be struggling out on the golf course today!" when in fact, it's just a funny way of explaining Lefty's first nine holes.

Starting on number 10 today, Mickelson opened with two bogeys, made a birdies, followed that with consecutive pars (boo consistency!) and then made two bogeys and two birdies to finish up his outward nine. In a more successful way than John Daly and Michelle Wie, Lefty has a great gift of making a scorecard look like a strand of multi-colored Christmas lights and still posting a number around par. He's even par through 13 holes so far at Oakland Hills.

Robert Karlsson, Jeev Milkha Singh and Sean O'Hair are all tied for the lead at two-under with Anthony Kim and Sergio Garcia both lurking (and playing together) at one-under.