Across the road from one of Augusta National?s entrances lies a revivalist church, one of the many that grapple with fast food outlets and strip malls for real estate space in the Georgia town; two years ago, a forlorn man in a sandwich board stood sentry outside, as the massed disciples of the Church of Tiger pressed past his own modest temple, and into one of golf?s more closely guarded places of worship. Those same people will have been in more conventional churches these past months, and massed prayers have duly been answered: come the first week of April, golf?s fallen icon will attempt to take back the arena whose ownership his remarkable fall from grace has sullied.

It?s not entirely surprising: no tournament is more inaccessible than the Masters, and no crowd more demure in its appreciation of the game and its swinging aristocrats, whatever form that swinging might take. There?ll be quiet murmurs and hushed discussion, perhaps, and the odd whispered aside about Hooters waitresses in Augusta turning up late for work that week, but for the most part, Tiger Woods will enjoy an audience almost as obedient and handpicked as the one that dutifully nodded in supportive encouragement at his carefully scripted apology monologue a month ago.

But while the return to the game has been managed with Swiss precision, unsurprising for a man who robotic in his single-minded pursuit of golfing success, the actual golf — the very reason we?re all so eager to see the return of modern sport?s most celebrated adulterer — won?t sit into such neat planning parameters. And it?s the reason for Woods?s downfall that makes his return all the more unpredictable: for a man who had based his game, and by extent life, on control, how strong will he be now that we?re intimately aware of his striking weakness?

Six months ago, and you?d have got better odds on Davis Love or Jim Furyk as the PGA Tour?s resident sex addict, but golf?s throne has a red light over it as the fallen king returns, and the pressure is far more than just getting his game back to his lofty highs after a lengthy break. The icy invincibility will be gone, no matter how much Tiger will attempt to project otherwise, and he?ll be all too aware that the scrutiny is of a different, and more intense, level to any he?s been subjected to before — no matter how carefully managed the Augusta audience may be.

So what will happen at the Masters? The woe-is-me pathos of the ?I will return to golf; I just don?t know when? from last month has been quickly shown up, increasing suspicion as to the theatrical nature of the Woods apology; weeks later, he?s working with Butch Harmon, and returning to golf?s sacred ground for a shot at the green jacket (whatever he?s been through, Tiger?s not simply pitching up to make a return to golf). But in his defence, it?s the safest ground he could have found to make his comeback, and the longer he leaves it, the harder it becomes. Set against the 16th at Scottsdale at the FBR Open, say, or the droves who?ll invade the Old Course for this year?s Open, Augusta is Tiger?s shrewdest option.

It?ll be a most unlikely tale if Tiger does win on his return, fable of a very twisted sort; and while it?s unlikely, it?s crucial that Woods does return to something approaching his best. The crowds want to see the man who?s defined the modern game continue to do so. The game needs the commercial support his presence brings. And importantly, the players want to be able to beat a full strength Tiger, and know that the man they beat to a particular title wasn?t one weakened on the course by his unsavoury crawl through the tabloids.

And so, while Tiger the man may generate very mixed feelings, Tiger the golfer can?t return soon enough, and Augusta National will never have enjoyed as much attention as it will come the first week of April. A few months ago, the preacher outside the course may well have been proclaiming the end of the world; now, the gospel at the Masters will be very different indeed. Tiger?s salvation awaits, and with it, inextricably linked as they are, the health of golf.