Buick sponsored an on-line sweepstake- Tee Off With Tiger- which sent Tiger back to Torrey Pines to deliver on his end of the sweepstake.Hopping from a cart, Woods walked up to 59-year-old John Abel, doffed his cap and extended his right hand. “Hey, I hear you’re looking for a caddie. I’m Tiger Woods - pleased to meet you.” Showing no signs of his season-ending knee surgery a week after the U.S. Open, Woods wore a green caddie’s bib inscribed with Abel’s name as he guided him around the back nine of the South Course, where he has won six times in the Buick Invitational and once in a U.S. Open he called his best ever.

Woods drove the cart. He handed clubs to Abel, then wiped them off with a towel and put them back in the bag. He squatted to line up putts and tended the pin. He warned how fast the greens were, then chuckled as Abel five-putted the 10th for a quadruple-bogey 8.

Woods said his rehab is on schedule but that his return will be dictated by his doctors. “I’m able to chip and putt now. I can start doing some more fuller rotational things toward the beginning of next year,” he said. “I can walk and do all this stuff. This is easy. But rotational stuff is going to be a little different.” Woods would love to be back at Torrey Pines in early February to defend his title at the Buick Invitational, where he has won four straight and six overall. But he’s not sure if it’s realistic.

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