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In his column today, ESPN.com's Jason Sobel notes that "according to those who run the OWGR, if Tiger Woods continues his leave of absence into the summer, he likely won't lose his No. 1 status until June or July." That's six months from now and eight months from when Tiger last played a tournament.

Now, it's understandable that Tiger has put some distance between himself and the competition -- his ranking of 14.13 is nearly double second-place Phil Mickelson's 7.95 -- but really, taking more than half a year off doesn't pull you down? Sobel thinks that's a bit too much latitude to give a golfer, and I'd agree. It's silly, like if one conference in college football didn't play a conference championship and so avoided the tough end-of-season test before skating into the bowls. (How's it hanging, Ohio State?)

The problem lies in how the OWGR weights its criteria. So how does the OWGR rank the golfers on the six professional tours? Sharpen your pencils and put on your mathin' hats, friends:

The World Ranking Points for each player are accumulated over a two year "rolling" period with the points awarded for each event maintained for a 13-week period to place additional emphasis on recent performances - ranking points are then reduced in equal decrements for the remaining 91 weeks of the two year Ranking period. Each player is then ranked according to his average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number of points by the tournaments he has played over that two-year period. There is a minimum divisor of 40 tournaments over the two year ranking period and a maximum divisor of a player's last 60 events.

zzzzzzwhahuh? Oh, sorry, I fell asleep somewhere around the first mention of "divisor." That two-year provision seems to be the key point -- the idea is not to penalize a player too much for one brief bad patch. But as Sobel notes, by that standard you'd be including Tiger's two recent layoffs -- knee-induced and hydrant-induced -- and that by the middle of this season, assuming he didn't return, he'd have played only 19 events over the last two years. By contrast, Phil Mickelson, who had two hiatuses (hiatusi?) of his own, will have played about 43 events.

"Tiger Woods' average points figure will drop each week he doesn't play and it will take until somewhere between the U.S. Open and Open Championship for his average to drop to where Phil Mickelson's currently is," the OWGR indicated. "If Mickelson plays well enough to maintain his current average and Woods doesn't play, then the No. 1 spot could change hands early July." And that's only if Phil continues to play well.

No matter what, though, Tiger's a wounded elephant right now, and all the other golfers are gathering around hoping to bring him down. And when he does topple, I'll bet he falls right on Rory Sabbatini. Whenever that may be.

Golf's leading lights have had to deal with The Tiger Question for nearly two months now, and with good reason. Tiger Woods is golf in the 21st century, and anybody who plays the game owes him respect, if not half their paycheck.

But what's interesting is how the reactions among pros, just like among the rest of us, are breaking down into two distinct camps. While the masses generally hew to either a blindly faithful "leave him alone!" or a blindly raging "Cheetah!" side, those in the business view the world with a touch more subtlety and understanding. Still, there's compassion, and then there's rebuke, and two major figures in Tiger's life have offered up both.

At the end of last week, Jack Nicklaus -- who has, to his credit, steadfastly refused to speculate on any element of Tiger's private life -- took on the issue of Tiger's pursuit of Jack's 18 majors. The way the schedule sets up, with majors at Augusta, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, Tiger could have cut two to three majors off the gap between them if he hadn't ... well, you know. But now?

"Certainly, this year with where the majors are ... he basically owns all three places," Nicklaus said in a conference call. "If he doesn't play this year, the chore will be a little tougher." In an interview with the Golf Channel, Nicklaus later indicated that while he didn't necessarily want to lose the record, he certainly didn't want to hold onto it just because Tiger was/is playing at less than full capability ... or not even playing at all.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Tiger's former teacher Butch Harmon, who leveled dead aim at Woods in an interview in Europe:

"The golfing public would like to see Tiger Woods do a press conference," Harmon said. "To stand there in front of everybody, take his medicine, be humble, be embarrassed, be humiliated, and answer the questions. But where the hell is he? We could find Osama bin Laden easier than we can find Tiger Woods. How long can you spend on a yacht in the middle of the ocean?"

Still, Harmon says he is on good terms with Tiger -- at least, as good of terms as anybody is these days -- and expects him to return before this year's Masters. He too noted that the majors set up well for Tiger -- no revelation there -- and hopes that Woods can get it together in time to make that run at 18.

No word, meanwhile, from Tiger. Surprise, surprise.

• No less an authority than Jack Nicklaus has said that this is a key year for Tiger in his pursuit of majors, because three courses – Augusta, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews – are among Woods' favorites. How much will this play into Woods' decision to return? [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

• Steve Elling drills one right down the fairway with a response to all of the people claiming that the media forces Tiger down your throats, and that it's the media's job to pump up the rest of the field. Wrong. It's up to the players to bring their best game, not the media to create false images. We got in trouble for doing that once already, remember? [CBS Sports]

• We've been waiting for Tim Clark to bust through for quite some time now. Will this be the year that everybody's favorite bridesmaid – seven 2nd-place finishes – finally makes it to the altar, metaphorically speaking? Perhaps … [The Golf Watch]

• Tim Finchem: another press conference, another confusing and seemingly deceptive performance. He's digging himself an awfully deep hole these days. [A Walk in the Park]

• Remembering Thomas Bailey, who'd been a patron at Augusta National every year since its opening in 1934. Say what you will about Augusta, the generational timelessness of the place is one of its strong points.

He's likable because he does it different, and he knows he does it different, and it's easy to see why he does it different.

Since joining the PGA Tour with a sponsorship commitment to Oakley and Ping, which in itself was a bit peculiar, Moore decided to drop all sponsors, and play golf the same way you and I play it -- by purchasing his own digs, his own bags and his own, albeit spiked, Vans.

He's exactly what we want in more of our golfers: a guy that seems to give a damn only about making birdies, making a paycheck and making it to the next event. He's the type of guy that doesn't mind sleeping on a couch even though he's worth seven figures. He's the type of guy who turned down a private jet ride after his first PGA Tour victory, at the 2009 Wyndham Championship, because it wasn't him.

He's real, and in sports, that's hard to find.

This week at the SBS Championship, though, Moore actually debuted his 2010 season with a logo. What type of logo? No, it wasn't a swoosh or Sony. It had nothing to do with cell phone companies (thank goodness), car companies (like they can spend the money) or investment companies. (Seriously?)

Moore decided that a small company called Scratch Golf would be his calling card, and signed with them because, as his father said, "They're passionate about high-quality traditional classic golf clubs that are custom-fit for the player."

So, knowing what you know now, do you think Moore is playing the company's new muscle-back irons, clubs that are offset and weighted with bells and whistles attached to the shaft, or do you think his irons look like something you'd find in a prop van at a "Tin Cup" shooting?

If you guessed boring, stylish blades, you're correct, and it's what makes the guy so, for lack of a better term, coolly normal.

He's 9-under this week after two rounds at Kapalua, good enough to be within sniffing distance of the absolutely scorching Lucas Glover (who was 9-under on a nine-hole stretch in round one), but like we've seen in his amateur career, Moore can win in bunches.

I bet the day he hoists a major championship trophy, and we all know he will eventually, the fist pumps will probably be left for the red-shirted and Moore will just smile and accept his award.

Then, he might just ask to sleep on your couch.

There is PGA Tour golf, and then there is PGA Tour golf with Tiger Woods. You all know the difference, I'm assuming, since you've probably spent a day or two with both.

PGA Tour golf is highly skilled athletes competing against each other for a trophy and a check, hoping to leapfrog the next with more red than black.

PGA Tour golf with Tiger Woods is highly skilled athletes hoping Mr. Woods has a down week so they might have a chance at a title, which still isn't guaranteed since even Tiger's B-game is sometimes good enough for victory.

Starting today, we'll get the former, the type of golf we had before 1996 and will have long after Tiger leaves the game, but something we might never totally appreciate. It's similar to if Michaelangelo was filmed painting the Sistine Chapel and artists could watch it on YouTube whenever they'd like. "Yeah, this modern art stuff is great, but just watch him paint!"

This is Year Two of No Tiger, a time when the PGA Tour kicks off but doesn't really kick off, because it isn't the same without him no matter how hard we try to ignore it. He's the elephant out of the room, and we all just wish he'd run back in and make it weirdly comfortable again. The difference is obviously apparent now -- it isn't injury (well, injury we know about) this time; it's deceit, lies, cheating and sex that is keeping Tiger away from the game he has changed.

It's a totally different beast, but the results will be similar. No matter what happens in the next few weeks, or months, or hell, year, if he decides to stay away that long, there will be an asterisk, one that says, "Yeah, so-and-so won ... but Tiger wasn't playing."

It's a disappointing reality, but a reality nonetheless, and something that will continue to haunt the game of golf long after Woods decides to hang up his red polo and fist pump. The day Tiger decides to leave for good will be a day we get this feeling prolonged, but for now we have to sit and wait for our date to show up way longer than expected.

The feeling we have for Cheating Tiger will go away. The anguish we had when we started hearing those rumors will fade. Ask Kobe Bryant, our 2008 NBA MVP, if people forget, and he will probably smile and point towards his ring and his trophy and his millions of loyal fans. "Yeah," he'd probably say with that ear-to-ear grin. "People will remember Tiger for Tiger before you know it."

The problem is, Tiger missing out on the game is the thing that will hurt us, the fans and the writers and the enthusiasts. We, the bogey-chasing galleries who wait in line at golf course well before the sun comes up just for that one or two great shots a round, have to wait to see when PGA Tour: Tiger is back on shelves.

The PGA Tour starts today. But for most of us, the date the season kicks off is still scarily undecided.

You're sick of Tiger Woods. I'm sick of Tiger Woods. There's been no news in a month, but even the lack of news is in itself news. Thing is, Tiger's still moving the needle in his absence, and as the PGA season kicks off, we're going to be hearing all kinds of stories like this one: "Defending SBS champion Ogilvy keen to capitalize on Woods' absence."

Yep, the story's about Geoff Ogilvy, but looming over it -- as will happen for the next untold number of months -- is the specter of Tiger Woods. It's not enough for a guy to talk about golf; now, they're going to be talking about how the game is/isn't better without Woods in the field. Check Ogilvy's pitch-perfect response to the inevitable question:

"I think it's an interesting time. No. 1 in the world might be up for realistic grabs this year, depending on how it all takes shape. I am definitely one of those guys; when I play my best, I can play with anyone."

Great answer. Diplomatic where it needs to be -- read between the lines there with the "interesting" -- and also flat-out bold.

Of course, talking tough when Tiger's not playing is like talking tough after the bully has driven off with your car and your girl: "Next time you'll be sorry! NEXT TIME!" Golfers are terrified of the eviscerations of Stephen Ames and Rory Sabbatini; they mouthed off to Tiger, and he proceeded to skin them alive and hang them on meathooks like they were the victims in the first hour of a Saw flick. Here's what I want to see: some golfer stepping up and saying, "Sure, Tiger's not here, but even if he was, I'd be knocking him out of the ground like a fire hydrant! I'd be smacking him around like a tabloid shredding a reputation! I'd be working him over like he was one of the 14 -- " ... well, we'd better stop there. Ain't going to happen, but it would be nice, wouldn't it?

So where were we? Oh yeah, Ogilvy. He rolled early but fell off the table, never seriously challenging after the springtime. He's got a good field of 2009 champions to challenge at the SBS, and even though Woods, Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson won't be there, plenty of rather good golfers will. If Ogilvy can top this crew once again, he'll be able to walk as proudly as he talks.