Tiger Woods in Augusta Today????

The main stream news media and social media are buzzing about Tiger Woods being in Augusta practicing today. So far none of the reports have been confirmed by any of Tiger’s people, but the feeding frenzy is on none the less.

There was a report earlier today by Augusta Chronicle staff writer Scott Michaux that a GulfStream G5 with tail numbers matching Tiger’s was spotted at the private aircraft terminal at Augusta Regional Airport this morning. If he is there for a practice round this would be a very strong indication that he will NOT skip the 2015 Masters Tournament.

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The last we saw of Tiger on tour was the eleventh hole at Torrey Pines when he withdrew with back problems and announced that he was taking an indefinite leave from tournament golf until he felt his game was ready to return. That was February 11th. Since that time the speculation has been running rampant about when he would return and would he play at Augusta.

Recently Tigers close friend, Nota Begay, said that it was looking like a 50/50 chance he would play next week. Today Nota is reported to have said though several social media channels that there would be a “massive” announcement coming within the next 24 hours. However, I can’t find any actual evidence of that either.

I’m not sure that Tiger showing up for a practice round at Augusta and formally announcing he will play – if that happens – would qualify as “massive.” Massive, in my opinion, would be Tiger announcing his retirement or splitting with Nike, so if it is going to be massive then we will just have to wait and see.

The good news for all Tiger fans is that his plane being in Augusta today is certainly a positive indication of something that I think all of us would like to see and that is Tiger’s return to competitive golf. Tiger stated earlier that he would not be back until he felt his game was ready for him to compete again at the highest level and where better to put it on display than Augusta.

Woods did miss the 2014 Masters because of injuries and at the age of 39 time is running out on him. I’m sure Tiger wants to win more majors, but he also knows that he can’t win if he doesn’t play.

The only thing that concerns me is that Tiger’s problem now seems to be more mental than physical and loss of confidence in your golf swing is much harder to recover from than ball striking issues. Hitting a million balls won’t help him. The only way he is going to get it back is to hit good shots under pressure and he hasn’t been dealing with competitive pressure in over two months.

“My play, and scores, are not acceptable for tournament golf. I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I think I’m ready, I’ll be back.”

Tiger has only played in ten events since the start of the 2014 season for either poor play or health issues. During that stretch he only finish three of them and finished better than 69th only once.

With all of that being said, if it is confirmed that he is in Augusta today we can all hope for the best and all of this is not an early April Fool’s Day. I like to think that Tiger needs golf and will do everything in his power to come back, but there is just something about this that doesn’t feel right to me. However, with a net worth approaching half a billion dollars, he could just say “I don’t need this anymore” ride off into the sunset with Lindsey.

Next: Golf Tip: Confidence (Tiger’s Real Problem)

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