Golf · American Tour

Guessing game goes on over Woods return

The Tiger Woods waiting and guessing game goes on - just when it looked as if a date for his comeback was going to be announced.

Excitement mounted when PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem called a teleconference today, but it was purely to announce a new tournament sponsorship deal.

Woods has been pictured practising and there has been mounting speculation that he could return to action in the unofficial Tavistock Cup next Monday and Tuesday, the Arnold Palmer Invitational later the same week or The Masters at August 8-11.

But Finchem was unable to shed any light on any of that and there was no announcement on the world number one's website either.

Finchem said: 'We have the general information that Tiger is preparing to play and there's been a lot of speculation about when he might come back out.

'Tiger's indicated to us that he will give us reasonable notice because we know we've got some preparation to do.

'But I don't have a specific date when he's going to come back and I can only assume, though, that all this speculation about late March and early April, if he is going to start back then, we will know soon. Beyond that I can't help you.'

Only yesterday Finchem had stated: 'I'm as excited as everybody else to see him back I hope this spring, but my sense is we'll know pretty soon.

'Everybody's done looking back at the circumstances that resulted in him stepping away from the game and (are) now focused on when he's going to play golf.

'I think that's good. I think that means people are paying attention to what he said.

'It's going to be huge when he comes back and it's going to be an interesting thing - how he re-enters the game, how he plays, how he deals with the reaction to his statement.'

Woods last played on 15 November, winning the Australian Masters in Melbourne.

 
RTÉ.ie Sport: Does Tiger Woods even know when he will make his comeback?
Does Tiger Woods even know when he will make his comeback?
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