Welcome back the golfer who can reappear from a five-month lay-off, shoot two eagles in his best-ever first round score at the Masters and end the day hot on the heels of the leaders. Whatever you think of Woods, it was impossible not to admire what he did yesterday. In the face of all the pressure on him, knowing that the world was watching when he strode on to the first tee, this was some performance.

When the world's greatest sportsman strode on to the tee and back into his life, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. No one even seemed to have taken offence at the advert Nike released on the eve of the Masters. If you want a glimpse of Woods' moral bankruptcy, forget the multiple affairs Woods has had and take a look at it.

The camera closes in on Woods' face - not quite close enough to obscure the Nike swoosh on his cap, obviously - accompanied by a soundtrack of his father talking. "Tiger," Earl Woods says, "I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I wanna find out what your thinking was. I wanna find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything."

The advert represents a new low for Woods. He complains often about the invasion of his family's privacy and yet at a time when he is trying to regain public affection, he allows Nike to use his dead father to attempt to aid his rehabilitation and sell some golf gear.

Is there no limit to what Woods will do to please a sponsor? Is there no limit to what he will do to make another buck? Apparently not.

What was remarkable was how little things seemed to have changed. Woods was greeted in much the same way he was always greeted. Five months of scandal were wiped out in one swish of a golf club.

So what happened to America's revulsion? What happened to its distaste for a man who trampled over every moral code of the Godfearing and the righteous? There was no revulsion here. Maybe it was just that golf was grateful to have its king back again, on song and apparently unscathed.