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Any mention of golf during the week of Thanksgiving used to be about the Skins Game.Now its hard not to think about Tiger Woods.It was five years ago this week when his private life began to unravel. It still seems surreal to recall the breaking news scrolling along the bottom of the television that Woods had been seriously injured in a car accident outside his home. The injury wasnt that serious. He was treated and released.And while the tree his SUV struck did far more damage, it was the fire hydrant he first ran over that became a symbol of the before-and-after nature of his career.There is a fascination with anniversaries. Is five years any more meaningful than four or six? Still, it seems appropriate to raise one question as Woods prepares to return to competition next week after another long layoff.Is this where you thought he would be five years later?He has gone through two swing coaches. He has changed caddies. He has gone from married with children to being a single dad. He still has 14 majors. And next week at the Hero World Challenge will his fifth comeback from injury.So much has changed, except for the expectations.Theyre just as high.And thats why the last five years — particularly the last one — would seem to be a lost cause.About this time a year ago, Woods was on the cusp of winning his World Challenge until Zach Johnson holed out from the drop zone for par on the 18th hole and went on to beat him in a playoff. That stuff used to only happen to Greg Norman.No problem. Woods was coming off another five-win season on the PGA Tour that only he can make look routine. He was PGA Tour player of the year for the 11th time, won the money title for the 10th time and captured the Vardon Trophy for the ninth time.But when he began this year as the defending champion at Torrey Pines, no one could have imagined what would follow.Woods has started only eight tournaments this year and finished only three of them. For the first time in his career, he did not register a top 10. There were two WDs (withdraws), two MCs (missed cuts) and one MDF (54-hole cut).He effectively was MIA.Recurring back pain led to surgery in March, which forced him to sit out three months and miss two majors. When he returned (earlier than he should have), he looked more like an old Woods than the Woods of old. And then he shut it down after the PGA Championship to get stronger.Is he as good as 25-year-old Rory McIlroy? No. For starters, Woods turns 39 next month.Can he challenge him?Considering the last five years as a whole, it might be too early to rule him out.—McIlroy with 13 wins worldwide is the only player to have won more than Woods (nine) over the last five years. Adam Scott, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood also have nine wins around the world.—Woods still has the highest winning percentage (12 per cent) of anyone in the last five years.—In the last five years, Woods has been at No. 1 in the world longer (60 weeks) than the other five players who have taken turns at the top of the ranking, and he is the only player to be No. 1 for a continuous year.Its not all that dire.Far more difficult to measure is how much Woods has been affected physically and emotionally since the crisis in his personal life unfolded Thanksgiving weekend in 2009.He doesnt seem to make as many big putts. But that started before he hit the fire hydrant. Otherwise, he would have won the PGA Championship at Hazeltine.He has lost precious time because of his Achilles tendon and his left knee, and more recently his back. Those injuries were a matter of time.The biggest change involves his corporate deals. Woods lost or did not renew sponsorship deals with Accenture, AT&T, Gillette, Gatorade, Tag Heuer and EA Sports. He has replaced them with Rolex, a Japanese heat rub, FUSE and and now Muscle Pharm. Nike remains his biggest sponsor, and Woods has made appearances in commercials and TV shows with McIlroy. There was a time when Woods didnt share his Nike stage with anyone.His performance in the majors is the most glaring difference, mainly because that always has been his ultimate measure.In the 16 majors he has played since 2010, Woods has only five top-five finishes, and he has not been a serious factor in the final hour of any of them. He has not broken 70 in the final round of a major since the Masters in 2011.He remains stuck on 14 majors dating to the 2008 U.S. Open. He is still four short of catching Jack Nicklaus.The week after Thanksgiving, Woods gets back to work. And that leads to another relevant question.Where will he be five years from now? Johnny Bench Jersey . 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Reigning champion Rafael Nadal pulled out of the U.S. Open because of an injury for the second time in three years Monday, leaving Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer as the men to beat at the years last Grand Slam tournament. Nadal announced his withdrawal, blamed on a bad right wrist, one week before play begins at Flushing Meadows. "I am sure you understand that it is a very tough moment for me since it is a tournament I love and where I have great memories from fans, the night matches, so many things," a posting on Nadals Facebook page read. "Not much more I can do right now, other than accept the situation and, as always in my case, work hard in order to be able to compete at the highest level once I am back." The second-ranked Nadal plays left-handed, but he uses a two-handed backhand. The 14-time major champion was hurt July 29 while practicing on his home island of Mallorca ahead of the North American hard-court circuit. The next day, Nadal announced he needed to wear a cast on his wrist for two to three weeks and would be sitting out tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati. The 28-year-old Spaniard also said at that time he expected to return for the U.S. Open. Instead, hes the fourth man in the Open era, which began in 1968, to decline to try to defend his U.S. Open title. The others were Ken Rosewall in 1971, Pete Sampras in 2003 and Juan Martin del Potro in 2010. Del Potro also is out of this years U.S. Open after wrist surgery in March. Nadal is 44-8 with four titles in 2014, including his record ninth French Open trophy in June. He has not competed since losing in the fourth round of Wimbledon on July 1. With Nadal sidelined, five-time U.S. Open champion Federeer joins Djokovic as a favourite in New York -- even if there are questions about them.dddddddddddd Federer turned 33 this month, and its been more than two years since he won one of his record 17 Grand Slam titles. But he is coming off a runner-up finish at Wimbledon last month and a hard-court title at the Cincinnati Masters on Sunday. After beating David Ferrer 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 on Sunday, Federer declared: "My games exactly where I want it to be." Djokovic won Wimbledon to take the No. 1 ranking from Nadal, but had a rough time on hard courts, losing his second match in both Toronto and Cincinnati. Still, Djokovic will be seeded No. 1 at the U.S. Open, and the third-ranked Federer is expected to rise one seeding spot to No. 2, so they could meet only in the final. The draw is Thursday. Federer reached six consecutive finals at Flushing Meadows from 2004-09, but hasnt been that far since, losing in the semifinals in 2010 and 2011, the quarterfinals in 2012, and the fourth round a year ago, when he was dealing with a bothersome back. Nadal won his second U.S. Open championship in 2013, part of a run of reaching the final in each of his last three appearances. He beat Djokovic to win the titles in 2010 and last year, and lost to Djokovic in 2011. The one question about Nadal over the years has been his durability, on account of a hard-charging, play-each-point-as-if-its-your-last style. He did not enter the U.S. Open in 2012, part of an extended absence because of a problem with his left knee. And this will be the second time Nadal chose to not attempt a defence of a major title: A year after winning Wimbledon in 2008, he missed that tournament with knee tendinitis. ' ' '