There have been conflicting reports over the last two days about when and where Tiger Woods will make his return to the PGA Tour. Yesterday, the New York Post reported that Woods would play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in two weeks, but now the Associated Press says that Tiger wouldn’t return until the Masters.
From ESPN.com:
Meanwhile, Woods’ longtime friend, Mark O’Meara, told the Golf Channel Wednesday that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Woods played during the Tavistock Cup, a competition between two high-profile golf clubs in Orlando where several prominent PGA Tour players are members. The tournament is scheduled for March 22-23 at Isleworth.
The event would be a good way for Woods to ease back into competitive play, O’Meara told the Golf Channel.
Woods has been practicing at Isleworth near his Orlando home the last two weeks, and swing coach Hank Haney flew there during the weekend to work with him. That led to speculation Thursday he was close to playing again.
Well, what will it be, Tiger? Do you want a small (Tavistock), medium (Arnold Palmer Invitational) or big (the Masters) stage when you return to golf? Last week I predicted that he would return to the Masters and make a big splash, but the other two events make sense as well.
It never ceases to amaze me how the focus has now turned to Tiger’s return to golf. It’s prove that the media and we as an American public have a short attention span and will move onto the next big storyline as soon as humanly possible. For months the headlines were about Tiger bumping uglies with porn stars and him going to sex therapy, now we’re trying to figure out when he’ll return to golf. Amazing.
Two sources in the golf community told The New York Post that Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary to Pres. George W. Bush and the man who was brought in to help repair the steroid-shattered image of Mark McGwire, has been huddling with Woods, plotting a strategy for his return to golf — at the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting March 25 at Bay Hill in Orlando.
“They were in his living room this week going over a strategy for how to handle Bay Hill in two weeks,” one source said.
The other source told The Post, “I would be shocked if he didn’t play the Arnold Palmer .”
Palmer himself reportedly has told some close confidants that Woods is definitely playing Bay Hill. Quietly, the people running the tournament are preparing for a larger-than-usual media crush.
Last week I made a prediction that Tiger would make his return at the Masters on April 8th, or play in whatever tournament occurs the week before the Masters. Bay Hill is the last tournament before the Masters.
It makes sense that Woods would want to knock the rust off his game before he played in a major, so I wouldn’t doubt it if this report were true and his return is at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It’ll be interesting to see how his team will choose to handle the media when he’s not out on the course.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS.com urges any aspiring play-by-play announcers to send their resumes into 105.7 The Fan, which does the broadcasts for Orioles’ games. Apparently two announcers for 105.7 decided to leave a game without finishing their broadcast. (Are things really that bad in Baltimore?)
- THE LOVE OF SPORTS ranks the top 20 mediocre members of more popular sports athletes.
- UNCOACHED.COM details why they miss college. (We’ll give you a hint – it has everything to do with a hot chick from Duke University.)
- TONYBLOGS.NET has the highlights of Tigers Woods winning at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
- LARRY BROWN SPORTS has video of a Guitar Hero Commercial where Bob Knight throws a chair at Metallica.
