Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard broke the story Monday afternoon that Tiger Woods will not appear as scheduled this week at his own Chevron World Challenge, an event at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. Woods' absence was confirmed shortly thereafter on his Web site.
According to the Golf Channel report, Woods has been advised by doctors to stay home.
If that's true, one has to wonder about just how seriously Woods was injured when his SUV hit a fire hydrant and a tree in the wee morning hours after Thanksgiving. (Or, as the skeptics prefer to speculate, when he was clobbered by his wife in a row over tabloid allegations of his infidelity.)
In any case, the notoriously private Woods appears unwilling, and probably not fully prepared by his legal and PR teams, to deal with the media onslaught in a public appearance so soon after the episode.
Don't look for him at Orlando Magic games anytime soon, either. If anything, he's probably planning a long retreat on his yacht "Privacy" – someplace far, far away – until the media storm blows over.
Beyond that, Woods' first PGA Tour start of the 2010 season is anyone's guess. He typically has begun at Torrey Pines in late January, but that was when he had an endorsement deal with Buick and the tournament was sponsored by Buick. The automaker has since dropped its golf sponsorships and the former Buick Invitational is now the Century Club of San Diego Invitational.
Then again, resurfacing at Torrey Pines makes perfect sense, since Tiger likely will be warmly welcomed in his home state. He has won seven times at Torrey as a pro, including on one leg in the 2008 U.S. Open.
WEIGH IN ON TIGER: Does he owe the public an explanation of his run-in with a fire hydrant? Cast your vote.
Comments
Tiger should skip the rest of the schedule until he learns to control himself on and off the course. He should be ashamed of his Happy Gilmore antics and be a professional. He thinks he's entitled to win every tournament he enters and when things don't go right for him he acts like a petulant child. Enough already!
rfan1: Put down the Haterade.
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