That still hasn't happened. Woods only allows TV networks showing golf to rent audiences — not own them. Says NBC analyst Roger Maltbie: "Let's be honest, the golf world needs Tiger Woods. They have missed Tiger terribly."

But Wednesday, casual golf fans can once again marinate in Woods. The Golf Channel — whose onscreen countdown clock to Woods' return helpfully shows the seconds left — has an expanded Golf Central Pre-Game (1 p.m. ET) before its WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship coverage begins —how's this for luck!— just as Woods tees off at 2:02 p.m. ET.

Don't worry if you can't watch Tiger on TV because you're, as they say, "at work." PGATour.com — debuting its own Tiger "micro-site" — will have tape-delayed, hole-by-hole coverage as the only online outlet able to show shots by Woods at every hole. And Sirius XM satellite radio will have live hole-by-hole coverage. Radio golf makes it more fun to second-guess how players read greens.

The event's match play format means Woods could miss NBC's weekend coverage altogether. Eric Wright of Joyce Julius & Associates, a research firm that calculates values that sponsors get from TV exposure, suggests Woods will fetch sponsors such as Nike about $6 million worth of exposure if he stays on NBC all weekend. But even if Woods is out by Friday, NBC producer Tommy Roy — who says Woods' return has become "a happening" — says he'll keep showing up on NBC all weekend anyway: "We'll document (his play) whether he's out or he's still alive."