It won't be long now and thank goodness for that. Tiger Woods will soon be strutting his stuff again.
When Padraig Harrington was winning The Open and the US PGA, both in thrilling fashion, golf seemed to be doing fine in the absence of its greatest player.
But since the Ryder Cup in September the sport has been on the backburner, coming to the boil only occasionally - on the course most notably with 19-year-old Rory McIlroy and off it with Colin Montgomerie's surprise fast-track elevation to the Ryder Cup captaincy.
The US Tour has been running non-stop as usual since the first full week of January, but with all due respect to winners Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson, Pat Perez, Kenny Perry, Nick Watney and Dustin Johnson it has all been rather low-key.
And with the world financial crisis what it is and both sponsors and potential sponsors looking at their balance sheets, low-key is no good.
Golf does not come cheap. The smallest winner's cheque in America so far this season was the Ј644,000 s handed to Perez at the Bob Hope Classic (no longer the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in a sign of the times) and more than Ј24million has already been pocketed by the players.
No wonder John Rollins was not to be found crying at missing out on victory a week ago. "I still made US dollars 574,000 (Ј402,000) - life isn't too bad," he said.
The European Tour is all very pleased with itself, of course, having launched its new "Race to Dubai" culminating in November with the world's richest event, where one putt could be worth almost Ј2.5million.
"Despite the turbulence affecting the world's financial markets the security of the Tour's strong partnership with (Dubai-based) Leisurecorp and Jumeriah Golf Estates has given us great confidence going forward," said chief executive George O'Grady.
"Dubai provides the underpinning and solidity for the Tour on a global stage."
But they still need the game to capture the public's imagination - and nobody does that better than Woods.
Last June was the last time he was seen in action and what a sight it was.
Despite a stress fracture in his left leg and a knee in such a bad state that he underwent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction immediately afterwards Woods not only managed to play through the US Open, but managed to win it - after a 19-hole play-off with Rocco Mediate.
The world number one's 14th major title was his greatest yet and with Roger Federer overshadowed by Rafael Nadal in the past year Woods' decade-long dominance is unlike any other in the whole of sport.
With the length of his lay-off it is easy to forget just how much he towers over all his rivals.
In his last 13 tournaments Woods has won 10, been second twice and
was fifth in the other.
The aggregate of his winning margins in those 10 victories? Nine were stroke play and he won those by a cumulative 45 shots, while in last February's World Match Play in Arizona he won the final eight and seven against Stewart Cink.
That is what everybody has been missing - and what companies are still forking out millions to be associated with.
When American magazine "Golf Digest" came up with their annual list of golf's biggest earners for 2008 Woods' total - on and off the course - was put at just over Ј82million.
And this in a year when he played only seven tournaments and did not hit a shot after June 16.
Closest to the 33-year-old American were Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh with Ј30.8million and Ј30.1 million respectively.
Next, just to underline the fortunes available in business way beyond a playing career, were 79-year-old Arnold Palmer and 54-year-old Greg Norman with Ј21million and Ј18million.
Checking back over previous lists the magazine made Woods' career
total less than 115 million dollars short of a billion.
His contracts for this season - regardless of whether he returned to action and not forgetting that General Motors terminated a nine-year deal estimated at 50 million a year early - brought the landmark figure to his doorstep.
Corporate spending is inevitably being hit hard in the current climate, but Woods' agent Mark Steinberg said: "You'll just have to be more creative in how you structure deals.
"There still needs to be advertising, there still needs to be marketing. In an economy like this it's even more important to get your brand out there."
For sports fans, having Woods "out there" competing again is something that cannot come quickly enough.
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