A year ago to call Ryan Vogelsong a journeyman would have been an exaggeration. More accurately, he was a bust who had pitched poorly on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, and at age 33, just released by a Triple-A team, appeared finished in baseball.

Appeared. Sunday, with the San Francisco Giants, who last winter gave him a second chance as a non-roster invitee, Vogelsong improved his season record to 10-2.

This bit of history is provided for those who think Tiger Woods is done as a champion. Indeed, it's possible. But as Vogelsong showed, after a lifetime of waivers, trades and frustration, it's impossible to say what might transpire.

Even based on logic.

What's going to happen to Tiger? Anything. He's still young. He's still talented. What he isn't at the moment is confident.

Maybe he never returns to what he used to be. Sports is the realm of the unknown. More likely, Woods perfects his new swing which because of injuries he hasn't had had the time to practice.

Or ...

The critics say forget Tiger. But Tiger, like Kobe Bryant and Derek Jeter has ascended to a place where he cannot be forgotten.

He can be denigrated, sympathized with, disrespected, admired. But not forgotten. He may be unforgivable but he's also unforgettable.

That Keegan Bradley, fresh, new, and American, won the PGA in a dramatic manner, is all well and good. He's not about to replace Tiger. Neither is Rory McIlroy. Or Charl Schwartzel. Or Phil Mickelson, whose window as a star would seem to be closing.

Oh sorry, yes, Ryan Vogelsong. Let's close no windows, doors or opportunities to make any predictions that could end up looking absurd.

Tiger's progress, or lack of same, will remain the attraction in golf. In shame or fame, it doesn't matter. His former caddie. His future caddie. We'll be watching, which is not what America's television audience did after Woods left the premises of the PGA Championship in Atlanta.

The second round of the tournament, Bradley, and the star-crossed soul he would beat two days later in the playoff, Jason Dufner, shared first place.

Virtually no one cared. In the press room. In the country. The story was Woods, missing a cut in a major for only the third time as a pro. The story was Woods saying, ''I hit 20 bunkers in two days. I had four or five water balls. That's not going to add up to a very good score.'' The story was Woods probably not teeing it up again in a tournament until the Australian Open in November.

Golf and tennis have this problem: They are dependent on transcendent personalities. It doesn't matter who is playing quarterback for the Packers - well, it does, but whoever it is won't affect a fan's loyalty. But it does matter who's playing in the U.S. Opens, golf or tennis.

Golf had Arnie and Jack, Tom and Greg. Then when the game was searching for a replacement, in walked this kid from Stanford who captured three straight U.S. Amateurs, unprecedented, and because of his youth, smile and ethnic background, captured a nation.

People who didn't know a sand wedge from a sandwich were reading about and talking about Tiger Woods. As they continue, if now for all the wrong reasons.

The prince became a frog, or in the minds of the harshest critics, a fraud. Maybe even worse he became an also-ran.

Which may be permanent. Or only temporary. Sports is full of comebacks. Daunte Culpepper is out there once more, at age 34, ancient in football, apparently ready to sign as a backup with the San Francisco 49ers. He still wants it. The question is, does Tiger?

Hank Haney, Woods' teaching pro for a few years until early 2010, was saying Tiger understands the swing and himself. "He'll figure it out,'' Haney told Jim Litke of the Associated Press.

What if he doesn't? What if Woods, even healthy, even able to work on his game, continues to struggle? Tiger is hardly the sort who will accept continued poor play. Does he give himself weeks to make the necessary improvements? Months? Years?

His late father, Earl, told us nobody was stronger mentally than Tiger. Through the seasons, in tough situations, Woods displayed that strength. Nothing and no one beat him down, even if they might beat him.

Now, with analysts wondering what's happened to his swing, wondering if at age 35 he's willing to spend the hours on the practice tee he did at 25 or 15, Woods will need to retain - or regain - that self-belief.

"It's a step back in the sense that I didn't make the cut and I'm not contending in the tournament,'' Tiger said after the second round, "but it's a giant leap forward in the fact that I played two straight weeks, healthy.''

Was he trying to persuade us? Or himself?