AMY SANCETTA / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tiger Woods will make his return to competitive golf at the Masters. If he can successfully make a smooth transition back to pro golfer, it will be the biggest comeback ever, NBCSports.com contributor Mike Ventre writes.

And there are those who weren’t able to come back. Mike Tyson went to prison for three years for rape and was never the same afterward. He did reclaim his career and even won titles after fights against tomato cans Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon, but his life remained a train wreck, and today he is remembered more for his angry outbursts and volatile behavior than he is for his boxing prowess.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro all will be remembered more for the performance-enhancing drug scandals that halted their baseball careers than their moments of glory on the diamond. They didn’t have any seasons left to rehabilitate their images after the manure hit the rotating blade.

Tiger has the advantage of being in his prime. He also has the disadvantage of having screwed up royally while in his prime.

There might not be another athlete in history with such a global following who dishonored himself so publicly. There may not be a bigger celebrity in sports who had so much and came close to blowing it all.

There might not be a superstar who was at the top, hit rock bottom, and then had to climb all the way back.

He is a good bet to regain his momentum and start tearing up golf courses again. The determination that earned him an indelible place in the sport’s history is still there. In fact, it may be even more potent than ever, since he has so much to prove.

Sure, there will be heckling buffoons, although not as many at the Masters, which is probably a reason he selected it. Yes, there will be TMZ stalkers. Indeed, there will be incidents of discomfort and reminders of ugliness.

But through it all he will probably play the game of golf better than anyone else. And remember all of those reluctant challengers to Tiger’s throne? The vast majority remains weak-kneed, still content with bringing home fat paychecks for finishing 15th while banking sponsors’ dough. It isn’t like a pack of ravenous Tiger wannabes has formed in his absence, waiting to seize control.

The question isn’t his return to the top of the leaderboard, but whether he can get there frequently enough from now on so that it makes people forget the number of mistresses he had.

There has never been a comeback quite like that.