Maybe Woods knows what's best for his golf game

This would fall under the category of "He must know what he's doing.''

It is probably not surprising that Tiger Woods is coming back for the Masters, given that his career-long pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record for major professional championships has been his competitive driving force since he turned pro.

What is surprising, at least here, is that he is going in cold, having not played in some five months, since before he went for that short drive in late November and had his public life turned inside out.

No Tavistock Cup. No Bay Hill. He said he will go straight into Augusta National, a place he has won four times but not, it should be noted, since 2005 and the past four years he has been as honed as he ever was for the first major of the season.

Is this a tall order competitively? It certainly looks like it, given that the only time he has ever played a major off this much of a layoff, after his father died a few years ago, he missed the cut at the U.S. Open for the first time in one of golf's four biggest tournaments.

But what the hey. As it said earlier, he knows all the facts and how he feels and knows exactly where his game is, or where it figures to be in three weeks. He doesn't go anywhere to embarrass himself, or at least he hasn't in the past. So if this is his decision, he has earned the benefit of the doubt. If he doesn't know what's best for his golf game, who does?

Augusta probably is of two minds on this one. For certain, it wants Woods around, knowing what he does to TV numbers worldwide and for generating over-all interest in the tournament. On the other hand, Augusta won't tolerate a freak show and/or rowdy ranters heckling him. There's always plenty of security at Augusta, plus a strict policy against cell phones and cell-phone cameras (they search at the gates). Then again, they serve $2.50 beers.

Comments

[Mark Hillard]

I am sure that Tiger will be realistic about his chances of victory with himself, but I doubt he will concede that to the press or others, so I suspect it isn't purely his desire to win another major in his quest to overhaul Jack, that lead him to choose Augusta as his first tournament.There can be only one comeback event, so once this one is tucked away, whatever happens at future events will be greatly diminished. Augusta ends up being the perfect place, therefore. The media and fan restrictions are huge at the event and all of the hoo hah will take place outside of Tigers personal environment, and that of all the other players. I for one am, very much looking forward to seeing him play again, the tour has been flat without him.

[Colin W]

Great news that Tiger will be playing @ Augusta and for sure there will be those heckling him but for the most part, that notion that he will be taunted by fans everywhere is one that is primarily media driven. Rightly or wrongly, most fans don't care what Tiger does in his personal life; they respect him for what he does on the golf course and that is what fans like myself look forward to. How big is Tiger? I can hardly watch 15 minutes of golf if he is not playing. The other guys are simply boring and the game just isn't the same. With Tiger, at every hole on the course one can always expect the unexpected (no pun intended, of course)