Tiger Woods' return could come in Orlando

The “Tiger Woods return” buzz is starting to get louder – and clearer – with each passing day.

Woods’ swing coach Hank Haney flew into Orlando Sunday to spend a few days with his star student on the private practice range at Woods’ exclusive Isleworth neighborhood, according to a report by Golf Digest.

This follows a report last week that Woods was working diligently on his game at Isleworth. Fellow Isleworth resident Charles Howell III spoke with Woods and said the swing looked good.

With all this serious work on his golf game, the widely circulated prognostication that Woods will return to competitive golf this month is starting to resemble fact.

The interclub match between Lake Nona and Isleworth, an all-star exhibition, is set for March 22-23 inside the secure gates of Isleworth. That is followed two days later by the Arnold Palmer Invitational at nearby Bay Hill, a tournament Woods has won six times.

With the Masters at Augusta two weeks after Bay Hill, this seems a likely scenario for Woods first competitive golf since November, when his multiple extramarital affairs became public.

Woods’ undeniable career goal is to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles. This year’s majors lineup suits Woods to a tee – Augusta, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Whistling Straits. It is hard to believe he will pass up even one of these good chances to cut into Nicklaus’ lead.

Tiger Woods sincere in his apology press statement

Tiger Woods’ first public appearance was a tearful admission to his transgressions, and a request for forgiveness.
Woods seemed humiliated, contrite and sincere in his admission, and indicated that he is in the every early stages of recovery. He will return to rehabilitation on Saturday.
Woods did not indicate when he would return to competitive golf .
“Starting tomorrow I will leave for more treatment and more therapy,” he said. “I need to regain my balance and be centered so I can save the things more important to me – my marriage and my family.
“I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year. “
He touched on his Buddhist beliefs, and said that he had abandoned those beliefs. He vowed to return to a more spiritual center in his life.
Woods said that he felt he was above the rules; that he was entitled to stray. He then admitted that belief was wrong, and that he needed to live by the same rules as everyone else.
Woods’ voice raised when he touched on reports that his wife, Elin, had become physically abusive prior to his car crash the early morning after Thanksgiving.
“Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage – ever. Elin deserves praise, not blame.
What I did is not acceptable. I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values I was taught to believe in. “
He apologized to everyone – family, sponsors and the kids who have looked up to him as a role model.
Then he added, “My real apology won’t come in words, but my behavior. “
He asked that the media leave his family out of this, then he closed by saying,
“I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again .”
Following a long embrace with his mother, he hugged or shook hands with others on the front row for this press statement at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, then left the room.