The image of thick crude gushing from a blown-out oil well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico was turned off when a tightly fitting cap was secured on top a month-and-a-half ago.

Engineers weren’t expecting that sight again Thursday when they planned to delicately remove the cap as a prelude to raising the massive piece of equipment underneath that failed to prevent the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

But the government wasn’t offering a guarantee no more oil would leak. Plans were being made for oil collection vessels to be on standby in case of a problem.

With the cap and failed blowout preventer removed temporarily until another blowout preventer can be installed, a lot will be riding on the stability of a plug that was created when mud and cement were pumped down into the well from the top. Essentially, the pressure exerted downward served to counter the pressure coming up.

But Rice University engineering professor George Hirasaki said there is still uncertainty about whether the cement settled everywhere it needed to in order to keep oil and gas from finding its way up.

“Just because it didn’t flow when they tested it doesn’t mean the cement displaced all of the oil and gas,” Hirasaki said.

That’s why many people have felt that finishing a relief well and pumping mud and cement in through the bottom would be the ultimate solution to the crisis, said Hirasaki, who was involved in the oil containment effort in the Bay Marchand field off Louisiana after a rig burned in the early 1970s.

The government still plans on ordering BP PLC (BP), the majority owner of the blown-out well in the Gulf, to do the so-called bottom kill operation. But it believes the wisest course is to put on a new blowout preventer first to deal with any pressure that is caused when the relief well intersects the blown-out well.

Another potential risk: What happens if the crane attached to the blowout preventer accidentally drops the 50-foot, 300-ton device onto the wellhead?

That might not, in and of itself, cause more oil to spew, as long as the plug held, but it would make it difficult to continue the operation, Hirasaki said.

“It would crush everything,” he said. “It would be hard to place another blowout preventer on top of it. Right now the wellhead condition is in good condition. But if you dropped it, everything could be opened up.”

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point person on the oil spill response, told reporters Wednesday during a visit to BP’s U.S. offices in Houston that engineers believe the crane will be able to handle the weight of the blowout preventer and some fragile pipe that is believed to be lodged inside.

But if the crane were to swing like a pendulum, that could cause problems, which is why officials have been waiting for rough seas at the site to calm down before continuing with the removal of the blowout preventer. They don’t believe the surface conditions will cause problems with removing the cap, which is why they feel comfortable going forward with that around midday Thursday.

After the cap is removed, the Helix Q4000 will latch its hooks onto the blowout preventer and wait for instructions to begin lifting it up. Engineers are prepared to exert a tremendous amount of pressure to get the blowout preventer free, but they must be careful not to damage it because it is a key piece of evidence in ongoing investigations.

Allen said there is no “significant risk” of more oil leaking into the environment. But he said that after the cap and blowout preventer are removed, “The goal there will be to secure the annulus as quick as we can.”

The annulus is an area between the inner piping and the outer casing.

Based on an updated timeline Allen released Wednesday, the blowout preventer could begin being raised late Thursday or early Friday, but Allen cautioned that timeline could be stretched again if high seas continue to kick up. The final plugging of the well isn’t expected until after Labor Day.

A 12-person government evidence team is waiting to take possession of the blowout preventer when it reaches the surface.

The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion April 20 killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s undersea well.

BP was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.

Meanwhile, BP PLC said it has spent more than $5 million a week on advertising since the Gulf oil spill began – more than three times the amount it spent on ads during the same period last year.

BP told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that it spent a total of $93 million on advertising from April to the end of July. The company says the money was intended to keep Gulf Coast residents informed on issues related to the oil spill and to ensure transparency about its actions. The increased spending was largely targeted at TV, newspapers and magazines. A small portion was directed to the Internet.

BP said it actually aired fewer TV spots from April to July than during a similar period last year.

Mary J. Blige and Jazmine Sullivan are set to hit the road together for a fall tour. Blige announced the trek — also scheduled to include Miguel — during an appearance on BET’s “106 & Park.”

The tour will begin October 2 in Atlanta and feature stops in New York (October 11 and 12); Atlantic City, New Jersey (October 8); and Virginia Beach, Virginia (October 3).

Blige told the “106 & Park” studio audience that Sullivan was “one of the most amazing female singers out right now in this generation, and of course, she’s got to be a part of my generation.” She added: “She’s my sister. I love this girl’s voice and spirit. Jazmine Sullivan is for real, and she’s going on the road with me.”

The Philadelphia-born Sullivan’s Missy Elliott-produced “Holding You Down (Goin’ in Circles)” remix, which features Blige and Swizz Beatz, dropped Monday. The track samples several hip-hop and R&B hits, including Slick Rick’s “La Di Da Di,” rap supergroup the Firm’s “Affirmative Action” and Blige’s “Be Happy.”

Sullivan is set to release her sophomore project, Love Me Back, in October; Miguel is finishing up his debut, All I Want Is You, for release next year.

Tentative Mary J. Blige and Jazmine Sullivan tour dates, provided by Live Nation:

» 10/1 – Mobile, AL
» 10/2 – Atlanta, GA
» 10/3 – Virginia Beach, VA
» 10/5 – Raleigh, NC
» 10/7 – Washington, DC
» 10/8 – Atlantic City, NJ
» 10/10 – Mashantucket, CT
» 10/11 – New York, NY
» 10/12 – New York, NY
» 10/15 – Detroit, MI
» 10/16 – Chicago, IL
» 10/19 – Los Angeles, CA
» 10/20 – Los Angeles, CA
» 10/22 – Las Vegas, NV
» 10/23 – Oakland, CA

As President Barack Obama prepares to officially end the lengthy and divisive U.S. combat operation in Iraq, he’ll personally thank some of the soldiers who fought there for their service to a mission he forcefully opposed from the start.

Many of those soldiers deployed from Fort Bliss, the sprawling Army base in El Paso, Texas, that Obama will visit Tuesday. After speaking with the troops, Obama will return to Washington to address the nation and formally end a combat mission in Iraq that lasted more than seven years, leaving more than 4,400 U.S. troops dead and thousands more wounded.

Obama was an early critic of the war, speaking out against it during the U.S. invasion in early 2003 and promising during his presidential campaign to bring the conflict to an end. The White House sees Tuesday’s benchmark as a promise kept and has gone to great lengths to promote it as such, dispatching Vice President Joe Biden to Iraq to preside over a formal change-of-command ceremony and raising Tuesday night’s remarks to the level of an Oval Office address, something Obama has only done once before.

Among Obama’s goals on Tuesday is honoring those who have served in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, many returning to the battlefield for multiple tours of duty. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that while the Iraq war would have never happened had Obama been commander in chief at the time, the president holds the service and sacrifice of the troops in high regard.

Appearing on nationally broadcast interviews Tuesday morning, Gibbs repeatedly brushed aside questions about whether Obama would credit President George W. Bush’s troop surge with helping to pave the way for the withdrawal.

Top Republicans, however, were in no doubt. “Some leaders who opposed, criticized, and fought tooth-and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results,” House GOP leader John Boehner said, in excerpts of a speech he was to give to the American Legion convention in Milwaukee. “Today we mark not the defeat those voices anticipated – but progress.”

In Gibbs’ appearances, he said it’s “not up for question” that candidate Obama agreed sending 30,000 more troops to Iraq would bolster security. But “a number of things” brought the United States to this point, including the move toward greatrer political accommodation among the Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions, the spokesman said.

Pressed on this point, Gibbs said, “Again, I think the president has always stated, and always believed” that adding significant numbers of American troops would stabilize the security environment, “but obviously the leaders in Iraq had to make some political accommodation to move that nation forward.”

Asked if Obama would support sending combat troops back if new waves of violence threatened the country, Gibbs said that Obama had been assured recently by commander Gen. Ray Odierno that such a scenario would be very unlikely.

“This is not a victory lap,” he said. “You’re not going to see any ‘Mission Accomplished’ banners that will be unfurled. ”

Since the start of the war, 200,000 personnel from Fort Bliss have deployed to Iraq, serving in every major phase of the war. Fifty-one soldiers from the base died there and many more were wounded.

Last week, some 600 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team returned to the base as part of Obama’s self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline for having all U.S. combat troops out of Iraq. Just about 50,000 U.S. troops will remain, down from a peak of nearly 170,000 in 2007. U.S. troops will no longer be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Administration officials have been careful to avoid equating the end of the combat mission with a mission accomplished. That was the phrase on the now-infamous banner that flew on an aircraft carrier seven years ago when Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, a symbol the Bush White House came to deeply regret as the war dragged on.

“You won’t hear those words coming from us,” Gibbs said Monday. “Obviously tomorrow marks a change in our mission. It marks a milestone that we have achieved in removing our combat troops. That is not to say that violence is going to end tomorrow.”

Under a security agreement signed between the U.S. and Iraq before Obama took office, all U.S. forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011. But the Obama administration insists the U.S. is not abandoning Iraq and is ramping up a diplomatic corps to help stabilize the country’s government and economy over the coming years.

“This redoubles the efforts of the Iraqis,” Gibbs said. “They will write the next chapter in Iraqi history, and they will be principally responsible for it. We will be their ally, but the responsibility of charting the future of Iraq first and foremost belongs to the Iraqis.”

Ahead of Tuesday night’s remarks, Obama also planned to speak with Bush. While Bush’s decision to invade Iraq was criticized by many, the troop surge Bush ordered in 2007 has been credited with tamping down violence in Iraq and helping keep the country from falling into a civil war.

Gibbs was interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today” show, CBS’s “The Early Show,” CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and National Public Radio.

The crime drama “Takers” was the top film in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, earning $20.5 million for Sony Corp.

The film moved into first place after final Sunday sales numbers were tallied, displacing “The Last Exorcism,” researcher Hollywood.com Box Office said today in an e-mailed statement. “The Last Exorcism” took in $20.4 million.

“Takers” features singer Chris Brown and Hayden Christensen leading a group of bank robbers chased by a veteran detective played by Matt Dillon. “The Last Exorcism,” along with “Takers,” had an unexpectedly strong opening weekend for late August, said Gitesh Pandya, chief executive officer of Box Office Guru.com.

“The end of August is a dumping ground for weak movies that don’t work,” Pandya said. “It shows that there’s still a lot of interest out there in moviegoers to see something different.”

“The Last Exorcism,” from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., was filmed as a mock documentary and doesn’t feature a Hollywood superstar. Rated PG-13, the movie depicts a camera crew assigned to follow a preacher performing his final exorcism before quitting the practice.

“The Expendables,” also from Lions Gate, finished third with $9.5 million after two weeks at No. 1. The film, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, follows a group of mercenaries paid to overthrow a South American dictator. The cast includes Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and Steve Austin. It has taken in $82 million since opening on Aug. 13.

‘Eat Pray Love’

“Eat Pray Love,” featuring Julia Roberts, dropped to fourth place from third in its third week of release with $6.8 million for Sony Corp. Roberts plays Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote a memoir detailing her divorce and world travels.

“The Other Guys” remained in fifth with $6.3 million. The buddy-cop spoof starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg has earned $99 million for Sony in four weeks.

“Vampires Suck” was sixth with $5.2 million for News Corp.’s Fox studio. The movie parodies the recent vampire phenomenon, specifically Summit Entertainment LLC’s “Twilight” series.

The rereleased “Avatar” had $4 million in sales, finishing in 11th place. The take pushed the movie’s domestic total to $753.8 million. The 3-D film from director James Cameron originally was released in December.

Next Week’s Debuts

Three films debut next week, including the Wednesday opening of George Clooney’s “The American” from NBC Universal’s Focus Features. Warner Bros. will attempt to draw in romantic-comedy fans with “Going the Distance,” starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long,, while Fox’s “Machete” targets the adventure seekers.

Weekend sales for the top 12 films fell 8.5 percent to $100.4 million from $109.8 million a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Year-to-date receipts total $7.53 billion, up 4.1 percent from $7.23 billion. Attendance has fallen 1.5 percent this year.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Los Angeles-based Hollywood.com. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales for Aug. 27-29.

                     Rev.             Avg./    Pct.   Total
Movie               (mln) Theaters  Theater    Chg.   (mln)  Wks
================================================================
1 TAKERS             20.5    2,206    9,298     --     20.5    1
2 THE LAST EXORCISM  20.4    2,874    7,087     --     20.4    1
3 THE EXPENDABLES     9.5    3,398    2,804    -44     82.0    3
4 EAT PRAY LOVE       6.8    3,108    2,193    -44     60.5    3
5 THE OTHER GUYS      6.3    3,181    1,976    -38     99.0    4
6 VAMPIRES SUCK       5.2    3,233    1,615    -57     27.8    2
7 INCEPTION           4.9    2,070    2,356    -38    270.5    7
8 NANNY MCPHEE        4.7    2,798    1,685    -44     17.0    2
9 THE SWITCH          4.6    2,017    2,272    -46     14.8    2
10 PIRANHA 3D         4.3    2,491    1,727    -57     18.3    2
11 AVATAR: SPECIAL    4.0      812    4,936     --    753.8    1
12 LOTTERY TICKET     3.9    1,973    1,954    -64     17.3    2

The Americans survived their first tough test in Turkey, edging Brazil 70-68 on Monday when Leandro Barbosa‘s shot rattled out at the buzzer.

“This game right here was an eye opener,” U.S. guard Derrick Rose said.

Kevin Durant scored 27 points and Chauncey Billups added 15 for the Americans (3-0), who essentially clinched Group B with the victory. But they have bigger goals than a group championship, trying to end a 16-year U.S. drought in this event.

This U.S. team has to do without Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and all the other players who led the Americans to the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, and those guys never needed breaks at the buzzer.

“We know that teams are really coming in here to try to win this tournament and we’re here to do the same,” said Rose, the only other U.S. player in double figures with 11 points.

After the Americans trailed most of the first 2½ quarters, Lamar Odom‘s dunk with 7:14 left put them ahead 64-62. But they couldn’t build on the lead during a tense final few minutes, and Brazil had two chances to send the game to overtime.

Following a miss by Billups, Brazil got the ball and Marcelo Huertas was fouled on a drive to the basket with 3.5 seconds remaining. He missed the first free throw and then the second intentionally, tracking it down in the corner and firing it underneath to Barbosa, who lofted a shot over Kevin Love, only to have it bounce off the back and front of the rim.

“I thought it was going to in, but it’s OK,” Barbosa said. “I think we did a great job, it was a great game. I don’t think the USA knew that we could cause problems for them and we did it.”

Barbosa finished with 14 points after a strong start for Brazil (2-1). Marcus Vinicius scored 16, and Tiago Splitter had 13 points and 10 rebounds while battling foul trouble in the second half.

With NBA big men Nene, Anderson Varejao and Splitter, Brazil was considered one of the teams with enough size to topple the undersized Americans. Nene had to pull out with an injury and Varejao sat out again while continuing to rest a sprained right ankle, so the Brazilians turned to a speed game to lead for much of the game.

They just couldn’t finish the upset, leaving the Americans needing only a victory over Iran or Tunisia, the bottom two teams in Group B, or another Brazil loss to earn the top seed from the group and three full days off before meeting the No. 4 seed from Group A on Sept. 6.

The Americans have plenty to work on before worrying about that, after needing a huge night from Durant and 31 minutes from Billups, the old man of the team at 33 who had their only basket in the final 6:50.

“I knew that in the first half that this was going to be a fourth-quarter game, a last two- or three-minute game, and I was preparing myself to just be ready,” Billups said.

Nowhere was the difference between this team and its predecessor more apparent than in the matchup with Barbosa. When the teams last met, in their 2007 Olympic qualifier, Barbosa entered as the tournament’s leading scorer before Bryant led a defensive effort that held him to four points on 1-of-7 shooting in an easy U.S. win.

There’s no defenders like Bryant here, and Barbosa took advantage in the first quarter by making two 3-pointers and scoring eight points. Brazil made 12 of its first 16 shots in the period and its first four 3-pointers, streaks that were snapped when Barbosa was just short on a half-court heave at the buzzer, leaving them with a 28-22 lead.

Brazil extended its lead to eight early in the second quarter and was still up seven midway through the period, but with Splitter on the bench with two fouls, and Barbosa and Alex Garcia joining him, the Americans cut it to one a couple of times.

Splitter’s dunk sent the Brazilians to the half with a 46-43 advantage.

The Americans finally grabbed the lead midway through the third, extending it to 61-55 after consecutive baskets by Durant. Barbosa scored the final four points of the period, though, and pulled Brazil within two heading to the fourth.

The crowd grew solidly behind the underdogs, cheering loudly for Brazil baskets and booing loudly when a small “U-S-A!” chant broke out in the fourth.

Brazil is coached by Ruben Magnano, who guided Argentina to victories over the U.S. in the 2002 worlds and 2004 Olympics, when the Argentines won gold. He nearly authored another upset, as players on both teams thought Barbosa’s shot was going in.

“I had Durant right in front of me, I couldn’t see,” Huertas said. “I was in the corner but I saw the ball tipped on both sides of the rim and went out. It was a big disappointment.”

U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski used his reserves liberally in the first two games, but gave much longer runs to the starters Monday after the backups were ineffective during their first stints.

Billups, who played in the 2007 victory over Brazil, thought it was good for his young teammates to have a close game so soon.

“We came out victorious, but for the young guys, just know how thin of a line it is. Possessions, turnovers, things like that that we talk about,” he said. “Now they can see it.”

‘Takers,’ directed by John Luessenhop, revolves around a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low in between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened d

The government is about to confirm what many people have felt for some time: The economy barely has a pulse.

The Commerce Department on Friday will revise its estimate for economic growth in the April-to-June period and Wall Street economists forecast it will be cut almost in half, to a 1.4 percent annual rate from 2.4 percent.

That’s a sharp slowdown from the first quarter, when the economy grew at a 3.7 percent annual rate, and economists say it’s a taste of the weakness to come. The current quarter isn’t expected to be much better, with many economists forecasting growth of only 1.7 percent.

Such slow growth won’t feel much like an economic recovery and won’t lead to much hiring. The unemployment rate, now at 9.5 percent, could even rise by the end of the year.

“The economy is going to limp along for the next few months,” said Gus Faucher, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. There’s even a one in three chance it could slip back into recession, he said.

Many temporary factors that boosted the economy earlier this year are fading. Companies built up their inventories after cutting them sharply in the recession to match slower sales. The increase provided a boost to manufacturers, but now many companies’ stockpiles are in line with sales and don’t need to grow as much.

In addition, the impact of the government’s $862 billion fiscal stimulus program is lessening.

That leaves the private sector to pick up the slack. But businesses are cutting back on their spending on machines, computers and software, according to a government report earlier this week. And the housing sector is slumping again after a popular home buyer’s tax credit expired in April.

“What we’re seeing is that the hand-off to the private sector is not looking as robust as we had previously hoped,” said Ben Herzon, an economist at Macroeconomic Advisors.

Many analysts say the uncertainty surrounding the economy is holding back consumers from spending and companies from investing and hiring.

Consumers can’t be sure their jobs are safe, with unemployment so high. Business executives don’t know if sales and profits will grow enough to justify adding jobs. And potential changes to tax laws at the end of this year and other policy reforms also make it hard to plan ahead, economists say.

“People have been overwhelmed by uncertainty,” said Ethan Harris, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

A big reason the government will mark down its estimate of last quarter’s gross domestic product is that imports surged much more in June than expected. GDP is the broadest measure of the economy’s output and covers everything from auto production to haircuts.

Imports rose by 3 percent to just over $200 billion in June, while exports fell to $150.5 billion, pushing the trade gap to almost $50 billion, the biggest in nearly two years. Friday’s report may show that the higher imports knocked as much as 3 percentage points off second quarter growth, economists at Goldman Sachs estimate.

But trade isn’t likely to be as big a drag in the current quarter. With businesses slowing their spending on inventories and capital equipment, imports are likely to slow.

Housing, which added to the economy’s growth in the second quarter, is now likely dragging it down. The homebuyer’s tax credit boosted home sales in the spring, raising real estate brokers’ commissions.

But home sales fell sharply in July, and new home construction also declined. That will weigh on economic growth this quarter, but its impact won’t be as bad as earlier in the recession. That’s because housing has shrunk so sharply.

It made up more than 6 percent of the economy at the height of the boom in 2005, but now accounts for only 2.5 percent.

High unemployment is making it harder for people to make their mortgage payments and stay in their homes.

About 9.9 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment as of June 30, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. That number, adjusted for seasonal factors, was close to a record high of more than 10 percent at the end of April.

Friday’s report is the second of three estimates the government issues for each quarter’s GDP.

In his first tournament since his divorce, Woods finally looked like the No. 1 player in the world Thursday at the Barclays when he opened with a 6-under 65, his lowest score of the year, to share the lead with Vaughn Taylor. It was his first time leading after any round on the PGA Tour since the Tour Championship last September.

“It’s exciting to hit the ball flush again,” Woods said. “It’s something I’ve been missing all year.”

He didn’t miss much at Ridgewood Country Club. Woods hit all but one fairway and putted for birdie on all but two holes. And while he hit his driver only twice, they were two of his best shots of the day – including on the 291-yard fifth hole, where his drive landed pin-high and settled 15 feet away.

Was it just a coincidence that his game showed up so soon after his marriage was dissolved?

“I can’t really say that’s the case,” he said. “As far as golf, it was nice to put it together.”

Woods and Taylor both played in the morning, when the greens were smooth and the conditions were only breezy. They had a one-shot lead over Adam Scott, Brian Gay and Ryan Palmer. Scott played in the afternoon, where a gust of wind played tricks on him at the final hole and led to bogey.

Scott endured a long day in the pro-am Wednesday and didn’t think Ridgewood would serve up a 65 to anyone.

“Seeing some good scores this morning made me change my mind,” he said.

That one of those scores belonged to Woods was hardly a surprise.

“For him to piece things together can’t be too hard,” Scott said. “He’s very good.”

The last time Woods’ was atop the leaderboard after any round of any tournament was when he won the Australian Masters on Nov. 15, less than two weeks before his life caved in on him – the car crash after Thanksgiving night, details of adultery, five months away from the game and a broken marriage, which officially ended Monday.

His golf hasn’t been very good either, which is why Woods began the FedEx Cup playoffs 112th out of 125 players who qualified. He was so low down the list that he was first to tee off under a sunny sky at Ridgewood, the first time he’s done that in his PGA Tour career.

It worked to his advantage.

“With fresh greens, everybody in our group was making putts on the front nine,” Woods said. “You had to get it today.”

And he did. The 65 was his lowest score in 46 rounds, dating to a 62 in the BMW Championship last year. Taylor grinned when asked if he was surprised to see Woods’ name on the leaderboard.

“Somewhat, you know?” he said. “It’s good to see him back up top.”

With sunshine and a light breeze, conditions were ripe for scoring. Palmer had a chance to join the leaders until a three-putt bogey on the 18th put him at 66. Even though the greens became bumpy in the afternoon after so much foot traffic, the course was soft enough to allow for good scores. There were 14 players who shot 67, including Davis Love III, defending champion Heath Slocum and Stewart Cink.

Phil Mickelson, with his ninth chance in the last four months to replace Woods at No. 1 in the world, made only one birdie for a 72.

For Woods, the timing could not have been better.

Only the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings advance to the second round of the playoffs next week in the Deutsche Bank Championship. Woods at least needs to make the cut, then finish in the middle of the pack. He had a better solution.

“I figure if I win, I should be OK,” Woods said.

For one of the few times this year, he gave himself ample reason to believe that. Woods opened with a 3-wood down the middle of the fairway, a pitching wedge to 15 feet below the hole and a birdie putt.

More followed, even on the par 5s, which have given Woods fits in recent months.

He mostly used his 3-wood off the tee, figuring that was enough to reach the corners without having to take on the tops of trees that line the fairways. Plus, with saturated conditions from rain earlier in the week, tour officials allowed players to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairway.

“With the ball in hand, it’s much more important to hit the fairways,” Woods said. It was the first time since the 2006 British Open at Royal Liverpool that he hit his 3-wood off the tee on every par 5.

The two times he hit the driver turned out to be two of his best shots of the day.

After the tee shot on the par-4 fifth – only six players hit that green off the tee – Woods used driver into the wind on the 18th, hitting it so well that he had only a 7-iron into the green. He hit a punch shot to just over 6 feet for a final birdie.

“It was just a low, bullet fade right around the corner,” he said. “It was just the shape of the shot, because it was different than most of the 3-woods I played all day. I didn’t hold a single 3-wood. I was turning them over. Now, the shape of the driver in the complete opposite direction … and I hadn’t hit a driver since the fifth hole.”

When Lauryn Hill gives a live performance as well-received as the one she did at the Rock the Bells tour’s Aug. 21 stop in San Bernardino, Calif., it’s worth paying attention. It’s not that she’s never given concerts over the past decade. (Pictured to your left is her performance this January at Sydney, Australia’s Raggamuffin Festival.) But since Hill’s de facto retirement, fairly or not, it’s often been said that her live act has become inconsistent, unreliable, not what it once was. Consider her Rock the Bells performance this weekend a major piece of evidence against that theory.

Hill joined a dream team of rap legends in San Bernardino. Snoop Dogg, Slick Rick, the Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Rakim, and others each performed one of their best-loved albums start to finish. Hill only has one solo studio album to her name, of course, but she didn’t stick to that limitation, performing a selection of Fugees and solo hits. MTV News’ on-the-scene report makes it sound like a pretty great set list, including sped-up versions of “Lost Ones,” “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “To Zion,” “Ready or Not,” and “Fu-Gee-La.” “This was not a woman who some reports had labeled ‘crazy,’” writes MTV’s Shaheem Reid. “Lauryn was lucid and dancing and appeared to be enjoying herself.”

One solid concert doesn’t necessarily mean Lauryn Hill is ready to return to public life full-time. The same goes for the recent Billboard debut of ”Repercussions,” a leaked tune of indeterminate age whose No. 94 spot on the Hot 100 marked the first time she’d been on that chart as a lead artist since 1999. Still, it’s hard not to see these as good signs. Let’s hope this latest flurry of news heralds a major comeback, complete with new music worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or even her underrated MTV Unplugged set.

Before the defending champion Lakers can think three-peat, they’ll have to get out of the Western Conference for a fourth year in a row. Piece of cake? Not so fast. They don’t call it the wild West for nothing.

But with Kobe still at the top of his game, Phil Jackson back on the sidelines, and L.A.’s core still intact (not to mention the additions of Matt Barnes and Steve Blake), you have to like their chances of representing the West in the NBA Finals once again. Our 93 NBA panelists sure do; in our survey, 95 percent of our experts voted them in as 2010-11 West champs.

Check out the results below:

Henry Abbott, TrueHoop: The Lakers. When they got Ron Artest, I wrote that I thought they were quite possibly starting a dynasty. On paper, he made them better. But the one worry point was how he’d handle the pressure of playing on a team with those kinds of expectations and that kind of spotlight.

From his game-winning putback to his Game 7 Finals performance, he helped that team a lot. So, while the Miami situation may threaten that dynasty talk, this is blatantly the West’s team to beat.

J.A. Adande, ESPN.com: Lakers. They’ve been the best in the league the past two seasons, and they got even better this summer. Steve Blake is a good triangle offense guard and Matt Barnes is so hungry for a ring you’ll hear his stomach growling during timeouts.

Normally this would be the part where we wonder about Ron Artest, but after his incident-free season he might be past that. The main concern: Kobe Bryant is coming off his third knee surgery. There are only so many high-level games left in that body.

Kevin Arnovitz, TrueHoop: Lakers. We often hear that basketball is about execution. The good teams know what they want on both ends of the floor, but only the great ones know how to get it routinely.

There are a bunch of good teams in the Western Conference, but the the Lakers are the only great team — the one that fully understands how to get what it wants offensively and defensively.

John Hollinger, ESPN.com: L.A. Lakers. When you look at how much went wrong for the Lakers last season and the fact that they still won the West, one has to make them an overwhelming favorite in 2010-11.

Andrew Bynum went through the playoffs on one knee, Kobe Bryant played through myriad injuries, and they got virtually nothing from the point guard position or the bench, yet the Lakers still had more than enough in the tank to cruise to the conference crown.

Chris Sheridan, ESPN.com: Lakers. Resisting the urge to pick the Thunder and newly aggressive center Nenad Krstic; Denver is very good if Melo stays; and Houston will be right at the top if Yao comes back healthy.

Still, the desire for a three-peat will be a huge motivating factor for the Lakers, and a healthy and healed Kobe Bryant is not someone I want to pick against. Love the Steve Blake addition, too.

Marc Stein, ESPN.com: Lakers. Whoever says they can definitively pick out the second-best team in the West is lying.

The overall depth in the conference is obviously still superior to the East’s, but how can you say that anyone out West has closed the gap on the Lakers?