Tiger Targets Memorial For Return

Tiger held a telephone press conference to promote the BMW Championship in St. Louis and inevitably, the questions were about his knee.

“The rehab is going well,” Woods said from Orlando “I’ll you what, I’m getting sick and tired of riding the bike.”

I haven’t heard the entire conference, but its interesting that different news sources have different takes on the news. USA Today’s headline says: Woods hoping to play Memorial at end of May and has a generally positive reaction to the news.

But Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune thought it sounded like bad news:

From hearing Woods talk, it doesn’t sound as if he will be ready to return by the Memorial at the end of the month. His golf work has been limited to chipping and putting, making the June 12-15 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines a more realistic target date.

Jeremy Fowler, the Orlando Sentinel’s golf writer says that the knee is likely to be a long term problem:

… Tiger could have long-term problems with his recently injured left knee. His hips turn through the swing so quickly that his knee sort of snaps aggressively. His last swing change with Hank Haney was designed in part to alleviate leg and knee stress. I’m no Haney, but from what I’m hearing, another swing tweak, even if minor, could be imminent. We’re talking about repetition taking its toll over the years.

And around and around they go.

Only Tiger really knows. And he’s not talking.