Welcome Back—Our Word No.1 Golfer

Buyinggolfonline.com / 2010-03-19

All of you probably have heard the news of Tiger's return. Yep, Tiger Woods's return to golf at the U.S. Masters next month will generate huge interest in the tournament but almost nothing in the way of immediate revenues or profits for the event. Crowds are also waiting to see how the scandal-hit golfer copes with his first event back.

Golf's No.1 has decided not to have a warm-up event, but to start facing the world again at the opening major of the season on April 8-11.

When Woods tees off it will be 144 days since he last competed at Australian Masters, 132 days since the car crash outside his home which sent him into hiding as a shocking sex scandal hit the headlines and destroyed his image - and just 25 days since he said he spoke about his problems publicly in a 15-minute appearance on Feb. 19 and apologized to those he hurt. Since then, there have been several Woods sightings, most of them on the driving range at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Fla., the gated community outside Orlando where Woods lives.

A string of affairs came to light in the days and weeks that followed and eventually Woods admitted on his website to 'transgressions' and then used the same forum to announce he was taking an indefinite break from the game to try to save his marriage. Some of his sponsors have either dropped him or distanced themselves from him since then and it was not until February 19 that he finally made a public appearance. It was merely to read a statement rather than answer questions, however, and only towards the end of his 13-minute guilt-ridden, apology-laden address to family and friends at the headquarters of the PGA Tour did he actually mention his career.

"I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don't know when that day will be," he said. "I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game." Woods explained in his statement Tuesday that next week would have been too early to return. Within days there was speculation that he was gearing up to take my Wholesale golf clubs for a comeback much sooner than that. The Masters begins April 8. Welcome back, our world no. 1 golfer.