It's that time again.

The end of 2008 is here and it's time to look back on the year in golf. But any retrospective of the year does just one thing: gets a golf fan excited for the year to come.

Let's face it, 2008 was a half-season as far as the PGA Tour is concerned. Why? Tiger Woods, that's why.

With Woods playing just half a season, the game lacked its go-to star. Tournaments lacked buzz, television ratings plummeted and interest in the final two majors waned. Even among media, as tight financial times and Woods' absence added up to less coverage, there was less buzz and less interest.

That won't be the case in 2009.

Woods already is hitting some irons and the anticipation will build and build until it reaches a fever pitch upon his return. Where, and when, will that be? Who knows, but there are really just two possible scenarios.

One is that Woods doesn't want the Masters to be his first event of the season and he looks to make his season debut sometime in March, maybe at Torrey Pines, where he won the U.S. Open on a shredded knee and broken leg.

The other possibility is that Woods makes his return at Augusta National, hijacks the season's first major by both taking up all the pre-tournament attention and then going out an winning it
anyway.

Wouldn't that be a blow for the rest of the tour! Many players and analysts expect Woods to come back and be as good as old, or even better, but to win a major in his return would crank up the Grand Slam hype beyond its usual level.

But while Woods' absence did diminish the tour to a degree, it did give some other players a chance to seize the spotlight, with Ireland's Padraig Harrington taking advantage of the opportunity by winning two majors.

Harrington has won three of the last six majors and will now be expected to take on Woods the same way he has Sergio Garcia. Whether Harrington can have the same success with Woods back in action will be an interesting subplot to the 2009 season.

And if Woods wasn't going to get enough attention already, consider that 2008 ended with his caddie, Steve Williams, making the news when he was quoted at a charity dinner in New Zealand calling Phil Mickelson an obscenity.

Williams went on to admit that he doesn't particularly care for Mickelson, a three-time major winner and one of Woods' chief rivals.

Woods tried to put the incident to bed at his postseason event.

Special coverage Complete coverage of Woods’ life and career

"What ended up happening is I communicated with Phil, and we have discussed it," Woods said. "I talked to Stevie about it, and he feels bad what happened. At this point, that it happened  at all is something that none of us really wanted to have happen. But it's over and done with, and we put it to bed."

It may be over and done with for now, but expect the issue to rise back to the surface when the two are in contention together again. Hopefully they'll be in a final group early on, which should be interesting stuff.

And while 2008 will be known for other things — the U.S. victory at the Ryder Cup, Annika Sorenstam's stepping away from golf, Michelle Wie earning her LPGA Tour card — it will mainly be remembered for what it was lacking: Woods for half the year.

And the prospect of his return is setting up 2009 as the Year of the Tiger, one way or another.

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