TEEING OFF

Five things to look for on the professional golf scene:

1) Tiger Woods is already a little stir crazy. Just slightly more than two weeks after having season-ending surgery on his left knee, Woods is finding out he has more free time on his hands than he really wants.

Woods spent hours watching Wimbledon and more hours watching the Olympic trials, spreading himself out on his sofa. “I don’t like sitting around,” Woods said in a posting on his website.

But there’s not much else he can do right now. Woods said he had a couple of restless nights because of the June 24 ACL surgery when doctors also cleaned up cartilage in his left knee for the second time since mid-April and the third time in five years.

Woods won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines with a torn ACL as well as twin stress fractures of his left tibia that happened while rehabilitating from his knee surgery after the Masters.

Woods said he’s improving.

“The good news is that my stress fractures are healing. If I hadn’t played in the U.S. Open, they would be almost fully healed by now,” he said on his website. “So the surgery was a blessing in disguise. By the time I come back, they should be fine.”

What Woods didn’t write about was the timing of his eventual comeback, which is completely up in the air. Woods’ swing coach, Hank Haney, said he expects Woods to play a couple of tournaments before the 2009 Masters -- which Woods has won four times, but only once since 2002.

2) They’re going to play a game of 21 this weekend at the John Deere Classic. In a brilliant move, the tournament sponsor is supplying a 100-seat, all-first-class charter jet from Moline, Ill., to Manchester, England, to get players to next week’s British Open.

The John Deere people got 21 players to take them up on the offer, including Zach Johnson, Tom Lehman, Jerry Kelly, Todd Hamilton, David Duval, Mark Calcavecchia, Rich Beem, Woody Austin and Aaron Baddeley.

The plane, which also has room for 65 guests, is the same used by the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. The cost? Only a $1,000 donation for Birdies for Charity Bucks.

According to tournament director Clair Peterson, the estimated cost of the charter to the John Deere Classic is $325,000.

3) With Woods out of action, the No. 2-ranked player in the world steps back into the spotlight this week at the Scottish Open. Phil Mickelson has made no news since he drifted to 18th at the U.S. Open, except for listing his 4.55-acre Rancho Santa Fe estate for sale with a price between $10.75 million and $12,225,876.

Mickelson is trying to get ready for next week’s British Open at Royal Birkdale and figures Loch Lomond is as good a place as any for that.

“The best way to prepare for next week is to play well and be sharp here,” Mickelson said.

Mickelson’s record at the British Open is his worst of the four majors -- one top 10 in 15 times, including missing the cut last year at Carnoustie (where he also missed the cut in 1999).

4) The list of the 10 most-viewed broadcast television sports events for the second quarter is out, led by the NCAA championship game between Kansas and Memphis. But the Masters made it into the group, at 10th place with an 8.6 rating that was only 0.6 behind No. 4 (Game 3 of the NBA Finals).

5) Keep an eye on Kenny Perry this week. No, he’s not in trouble or anything, but he has a chance to not act his age at the John Deere Classic.

Perry, 47, who has already won twice this year, is trying to be the first player 45 or older to win three times in a year since Gene Littler in 1975.

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STAT OF THE WEEK

* There have been 28 stroke-play PGA Tour events so far and the AT&T; National, won by Anthony Kim, above, was the 16th with an over-par cut (three over). The highest over-par cut this year was seven over at the U.S. Open.

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A SLICE OF LIFE

Fredrik Jacobson, AT&T; runner-up, on winner Anthony Kim:

‘He’s got a lot of game, he’s a great ball-striker, hits it far, he’s got good flight on his long irons, so he’s a guy that can really play well on tough courses.’