The doubt surrounding Tiger Woods was never higher than it was on Thursday night. He had just followed up a disastrous British Open with a definitively average one under,71. For a course that rewards good play with great score, the Thursday round for Tiger raised some eyebrows.

Those eyebrows stayed raised for the rest of the tournament, but for an altogether different reasons. As if it wasn’t expected, Tiger Woods dominated a field that was easily dominated. A season best 63 on Friday was only the beginning.

He scrambled towards a 65 on Saturday and kept any would-be poachers at bay with a ho-hum 3 under 69 on Sunday. The final round number was significant in two ways. First, it put Woods at -20 for the week and a three stroke win over three others. Second, the Sunday 69 capped his 69th career PGA tour victory.

Once again, Woods struggled off the tee on Sunday. But, like he has all week, Woods was able to recover and at least save par on every hole. Tiger played his first boggeyless round of the tournament. He knew what he had to do and he did it. Was it a fantastic round? Not by any measure. But was it enough to win this type of tournament? Absolutely.

In regards to Woods’ struggles off the tee, I think its still something to look out for. Sure, he might be able to overcome such struggles at the Buick Open in Grand Blanc, Michigan, but would he be able to do so in a tougher field or on a tougher course? We’ll see about the field when he plays in the WGC Bridge Stone Invitational next week. We’ll see about the course when he plays the PGA in two weeks.

Although this was an impressive weekend for Tiger, I still have concerns about his play off the tee. If you were to defend Woods in this case, you could bring up that this weeks course had skinny fairways. CBS’ David Fahrety described one fairway as nearly impossible to hit. Ironically Tiger hit that one on Sunday. But the ones he missed, he missed badly.

What helped Woods out a great deal was the weakness of the field. His only real threat all day, Roland Thatcher, started the day from too far behind to have a realistic shot at a leader board with a Tiger on top. After shooting a +1, 73 on Saturday, Thatcher lit up the course with a eight under, 64. Like Woods, Thatcher went boggeyless. But unlike Woods, he made eight birdies. This was enough for Thatcher to move into a second place tie, but not enough to catch Tiger.

As for Michael Letzig, he dropped to a sixth place tie after shooting a +1, 73. Yesterday, we wondered if Letzig’s bogey on 18 would affect him. It didn’t appear to. Letzig parred his first seven holes. This wasn’t enough to challenge Woods, but it wasn’t exactly a “head-games disaster”. He double bogeyed 8, but then birdied 10 and 13. Letzig just didn’t make enough birdies today to make a run at the top.

Next Week: WGC-Bridgestone Invitation in South Akron, Ohio-

What a major tune-up! Tons of story lines in this one. The biggest, of course, is Phil Mickelson returning to the PGA tour. Mickelson hasn’t played since his near miss at the U.S Open. He has been away caring for his sick wife and mother. Don’t be surprised if Phil is a little rusty as he tunes up for the years final major. But don’t let that fool you either. Phil finished tied for 58th in the St. Judes in June the week before almost capturing what would have been one of the most heart warming major championship in history

Tiger Woods will play again as he tries to find whats been bugging him off the tee before the PGA. It will also be Tiger’s second tournament in a three week span.

British Open champion Stewart Cink and Jim Furyk are also in a field that is unusually good for the week before a major. In fact, all three 2009 major champions are playing (Cink, Angel Cabera, and Lucas Glover).