Tiger Woods is back - and with a great roar and much flourich, but will he ever reach the soaring heights of the past?
That might well be the million dollar question the golfing world is asking and arguing about right now.
It happened when Tiger Woods finally came in from the cold and broke a near two-year victory drought at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in April.
"He's back and heading for his greatness of old," his praise singers screamed in unison.
But then the wheels came off.
In his next three tournaments he tied for 40th at the Masters and The Players and missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.
The re-engineered swing he had been working on for more than a year still needed more work, he explained, but when he got it right, he'd be back with a vengeance.
True to his word, he did just that on Sunday when he won The Memorial at the Muirfield Village Golf Club that Jack (Nicklaus) built - and did it in such a way that it had the legendary Nicklaus praising him to the skies
The "unbelievable" shot that came at the short 16th on Sunday and ultimately gave Woods victory, was described by Nicklaus as "one of the most incredible you will ever see"
Woods trailed South Africa's Rory Sabbatini by a shot and found himself over the green in the rough. The pin sat on a down slope and beyond it was a lake.
"It was where he had to land it, what he had to do and what the penalties were if he didn't make it," Nicklaus enthused afterwards
"Unbelievable. If he hits it short the tournament's over, if he hits it long the tournament's over and he puts it in the hole!
"What a shot. I don't think under the circumstances I've ever seen a better shot."
In the end that shot turned the game as Tiger clearly knew it would when he followed it up with a fist pump that was probably as physical as anything he has ever produced before. His birdie at 18 merely sealed his victory
Beaming afterwards, he said: "To pull off that shot at 16 was pretty sweet, but to be able to tie Jack at 73 wins - and to do it at such a young age - feels really special."
Nicklaus was 46 when his 73rd and last PGA Tour victory came up in the 1986 Masters. Woods is 10 years younger and after sitting on 14 major wins for the past four years, feels he is finally back on track in his chase after
the Gold Bear's record 18 majors.
"It wouldn't have been so bad if the lie was better," Woods said of his winning shot, "but the lie was sketchy enough where it brought water into play," Woods added.
"That's one of the reasons why I took such a big cut at it, so if I missed it, I missed it short.
"I went for it and for it to land as soft as it did was kind of a surprise because it (the green) was baked out (hard) and it was also downhill running away from me.
"It just fell in. I didn't think it was going to get there at one point - kind of like 16 at Augusta (in 2005), I thought I was going to leave it short somehow and then it fell in.
"I was trying to get it inside eight to 10 feet.
"Today was fun because I striped it. The only shot I double-crossed was the second on 10 - other than that it was just every shot was exactly the shape, the trajectory, the distance control.
"I had it all today, shape off tees, whatever club I wanted to hit I could hit. That was fun to have it when I needed it."
It must have been a wonderful time in this week's new World No 4's dramatic life of recent years and while he has a whole host of the game's top observers, iincluding Nicklaus and Sky Sport's Ewen Murray, believing that
the 21st century's greatest golfer is back to the force of old, I have to wonder about that.
Not because I doubt an ability that since his childhood has been exceptional, nor because I am concerned about the mental battering he has had to endure since the exposure of his life outside of his marriage.
The signs are there that he's turned the corner on all that.
It's his injury-prone left knee that makes me a little skeptical that we'll ever again see the man who in the early 2000s was able to win four majors on the trot and as many as eight tournaments in any one season.
And this at a time when his adversaries are getting tougher and more confident with every passing week
But what ever happens though, I am sure of one thing. Tiger Woods will be making news for a long time yet.
Lesser mortals might have taken their money and run into a golden sunset and a quiet and peaceful life if they had encountered the kind of trials and tribulations he has had to face in the past couple of years.
Indeed it says much for his conviction and courage that he has stood firm and never given in and if anything, it is this factor that will define the footprint he leaves in the sands of time.
golf365.com