Golf world still waits on Woods

The golf world will have to make do without Tiger Woods a while longer.

Woods may have emerged from self-imposed seclusion to own up to his personal failings, but he left eager fans and colleagues guessing as to when he will return to the game he has long dominated.

“I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be,” the 14-time major champion said Friday. “I don’t rule out that it will be this year.”

As Britain’s six-time major champion Nick Faldo told the Golf Channel: “We’re back to square one.”

Ever since Woods announced via his website on December 11 that he was taking an “indefinite break” from golf, speculation has raged as to exactly when he might return and what he would face.

An appearance in the first major championship of the year, the Masters at Augusta National in April, now appears to be in question, along with two Florida events in March tipped as likely tuneup tournaments.

Woods said he was heading back to his therapy program, where he has already spent 45 days after a November 27 car crash unleashed tawdry tales of extramarital affairs. “I don’t want to minimize the long-term impact,” US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said of the impact of a prolonged Woods absence on interest in the game.

“But the good news from today is that, one, he plans to return; two, he could return as early as this year; and three, he clearly has taken the first very visible step in the road to that return.

“So that pleases all of us a very great deal.”

Finchem was among the handpicked audience of some 40 people who heard Woods apologize in person at the tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

But the 34-year-old golfer’s remarks were also directed at a global television audience as he extended his apology beyond his family and friends to his legions of fans, other golfers, corporate partners — all those who have a stake in the billionaire athlete as a global brand.

Just about everyone had an opinion on the statement, and opinions ran the gamut: He was genuine; he was disingenuous. He was arrogant; he was humble. His body language showed he was sincere; his gestures were pre-programmed and robotic. It was a foretaste of what Woods can expect when he finally returns to truly public life, when reporters are free to fire questions and fans can take their fallen hero to task.

The strict control of the event irked many, but others still considered it an effective first step for Woods.

Finchem said the time would come when Woods again opened himself up to questions.

“You know, he’s had these press conferences over the past 14 years,” Finchem said.

“The subject matter has been very different. It has been about ‘How did you play and how do you plan to play and how are the kids.’

“This a different situation. But he will re-enter that arena eventually,” he added.

Finchem also addressed predictions that the Woods’s shredded personal reputation and punctured aura of invincibility would make for some raucous scenes when he returns to competition.

“Obviously when you have one of the leading, recognizable persons in sports it brings out a lot of individuals that say things and do things, and we have to be prepared for some of that,” he said. “But hopefully we can maintain the decorum that we’ve had historically for our golf tournaments.”

Notah Begay, a fellow PGA pro and Woods’s friend from his college days at Stanford University, withdrew from the US PGA Tour event in Mexico this week to be present for the public statement.

Begay said he was moved as he watched his friend “suffering and taking on a tremendous amount of responsibility and having to be held accountable for actions that nobody would condone or approve.”

As to the fundamental life changes Woods vowed to make, Begay acknowledged: “It’s a little bit harder than making a swing change.” Despite Woods’s undeniable importance to the tour, Finchem said he hoped the golfer would not return until he had sorted out his personal issues to his own satisfaction.

“We’re supportive of whenever he comes back, whether it’s three weeks from now, or three months from now,” Finchem said.”

That’s less important than when he comes back, he’s prepared to play, to resume his career in a positive way so that he’s there for the long haul.”

LOS ANGELES, Sunday, AFP