Friday, April 10, 2009

Will Tiger play Quail Hollow?

Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams at Augusta. Will they be at Quail Hollow too?


Two weeks from today, Tiger Woods will have to let the Quail Hollow Championship know if he’s playing this year or not.

And if anyone knows for sure what he’s planning to do, they’re not saying.

Every year this time there are questions about whether Woods will play in Charlotte and every year it goes down to the last day or so.

The only year when it seemed certain Tiger would play in Charlotte was last year because he was the defending champion. Then, immediately after the Masters, Woods had the lesser of two knee surgeries, and he missed Quail Hollow.

What are the chances Tiger plays in Charlotte this year?

I’m guessing 60-40 that he does.

He hasn’t said no. That’s encouraging.

Woods keeps his schedule private – unless he’s going to Australia in the fall where they’re going to pay him $3 million. Appearance fees are prohibited on the PGA Tour, in case you’re wondering.

It would help tournaments sell tickets if they knew for sure he was coming. For the first time, the Quail Hollow Championship may not be a sellout so news that Woods is playing would be like a stimulus package.

Woods has a plan and he sticks to it. Even when everyone was sure Tiger was going to play the WGC-CA Championship at Doral last month, he waited until just a few hours before the entry deadline to officially commit.

Players have until 5 p.m. the Friday before the tournament begins to enter. Some players like to commit early. Others wait.

Phil Mickelson is going to play at Quail Hollow – his website and the people around him all say so -- but he has not officially committed yet.

Most of the top players are going to play Quail Hollow.

But the question people keep asking is will Tiger play?

I can give you a definitive answer: Maybe.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tiger will be here... book it ;-)

Anonymous said...

Who cares....other than the sponsors. Which are who btw?
I can't believe Wells Fargo/Wachovia aren't somehow still funneling money into this.

Cedar Posts said...

I'm watching Tiger throw clubs on 18th fairway. Tiger has never lived up to his mentor of young people status.

Great golfer sore looser!

Anonymous said...

Uh...exactly when is the Quail Hollow tournament?

Anonymous said...

Quail's already preparing for him to come, (actually carrying out plans for if Tiger came), I figure he's already told tournament officials that he's coming but has told them not to release the information to the public yet.