Waiting On Tiger

In his newsletter this week, Tiger Woods confirmed what we’d been hoping to hear – he’s practicing “full bore” now and his return to the PGA Tour is getting very close.

Naturally, Woods wouldn’t say just when he’ll come back for a couple of reasons.

His wife, Elin, is due to give birth to their second child this month, which will keep him around the house for a while. And, Woods typically doesn’t let on where he plans to play until shortly before his jet lands.

What matters, from a golf perspective anyway, is that Woods is almost ready. He’s working to regain his golf stamina, he said, which for him means being able to hit more balls in a day than most of us hit in a year.

For a while, Woods said, he was able to distance himself from golf because he knew he wasn’t capable of playing. But as his rehabilitation has progressed, the desire to play has returned.

If things go well, Woods said he would like to play a full schedule this year. Whether that includes the Wachovia Championship where he won in 2007 is uncertain. For a while, though, Woods will take it week by week as he gets back into the routine of tournament golf.

The most likely scenario has Tiger making his 2009 debut at the World Golf Championship event at Doral in early March. He could show up at the WGC match play event in Arizona later this month but it's being played on a course he's never seen and there's the possibility of playing 36 holes in a day more than once.

If Tiger plays Doral, takes a break then plays Arnie's tournament at Bay Hill, that's two events before the Masters.

As announcer Gary McCord said earlier this week, now is the time for the other players to take advantage of Woods’ absence but no one seems able to do it.

The storm is on the horizon, McCord said.

It can’t get here soon enough.