MELBOURNE, Australia » The woman keeping score for Tiger Woods in the final round of the last year’s Australia Masters did well to contain her emotions. She looked down at the boy holding the sign with the scores and wanted to make sure he understood his good fortune.

"This," she whispered to him, "is the holy grail in golf."

Perhaps the broader question is will it ever be again?

Woods returned Down Under yesterday with a slightly subdued reception. There were still media at the airport, although Geoff Ogilvy did not recall the same kind of TV report he heard last year: "The plane has landed, but we haven’t seen him walk out of the plane yet!"

There were no helicopters hovering over the fairways, because Woods did not bother coming out to Victoria Golf Club. And when he tees off tomorrow, he most likely will be playing before fewer fans.

The tournament sold out last year six weeks in advance. Now, tickets are still for sale. Tournament official David Rollo said 55,000 tickets have been sold for the four rounds. They topped 100,000 last year.

That’s to be expected, and not because of the year Woods had off the course.

The world’s No. 1 player had not been to Australia since 1998.

Since then, he had won 72 times around the world, 14 majors and was being debated as the greatest golfer of all time.

Now, he is No. 2 in the world and hasn’t won in 51 weeks.

It was Australia where the National Enquirer linked Woods to New York nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel, and more allegations of infidelity came gushing out in the weeks following Woods’ middle-of-the-night car accident Nov. 27 outside his Florida home.

That scandal is what kept Woods out of golf for nearly five months and ultimately led to his divorce. It didn’t do much for his golf game, either, for this is the longest he has gone without a win.

Woods acknowledged as much last week after he tied for sixth in the HSBC Champions, which for him constituted progress. Reflecting on a summer of finishing back in the pack, he said, "I was dealing with a lot of things off the golf course in that period of time, which was the most difficult. I also was trying to play, which was tough."

Ernie Els played with him two rounds in Shanghai and another round in Boston.

"It looks like he’s in a better place," he said.

Maybe so, but Woods is not where he wants to be, and certainly not where anyone is used to seeing him.

Fans at the Australian Masters might not turn out in droves because they just saw him a year ago.

Those who do might not recognize him now.