ESPN is reporting that Tiger Woods has skipped both his Wednesday practice round and his scheduled news conference.

Speculation is rampant that he won’t be playing in this weekend’s Player’s Championship.

PGA Officials say that he is “not on site.”

UPDATE:

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson reports that Tiger missed his practice round to visit his father in California. He expects to make his tee time on Thursday.

Earl Woods has suffered for several years from cancer, and apparently was not strong enough to attend the grand opening Feb. 10 of the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, Calif. 

With Tiger sitting in 25th place after the second day of the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational—a tournament he is used to winning—an article by Sports Illustrated’s Chris Lewis becomes even more interesting.

Chris says that although Tiger has shown signs of returning to his old dominance, victories at San Diego and Doral don’t really mean a whole lot:

If Woods had strung together a bunch of such victories—let’s say, worked in another Match Play triumph or posted his first-ever win at Riviera instead of being felled by the flu—then we’d have a different kind of season on our hands. We’d already know we were in a Rampant Tiger kind of year. Indeed, a number of scribes are already hard-selling that theme. But it will take one more pre-Masters Tiger victory, at this week’s Bay Hill Invitational or next week’s Players Championship, to convince me.

Chris has some other players in mind if Tiger can’t step up to the plate: the young trio of J.B. Holmes, Bubba Watson and Camillo Villegas, for example; or David Toms, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, or Phil Mickelson. He also cites a “conceptual David Duvall,” a player (not named DD), who goes on a memorable hot streak—Geoff Ogilvy, for example.

I personally think that Tiger wins this year’s Master’s, but that others will take the other majors. Remember that six of Tiger’s ten majors are on just two courses—Augusta and St. Andrews—and the British isn’t at St. Andrews. In Woods’ previous major at Winged Foot—the 1997 PGA, he finished well back of Davis Love (Tiger won the Masters that year).

Australia’s Advertiser has an article on Tiger Woods’ Scotty Cameron Putter—the most famous flatstick since BobbyJones’ “Calamity Jane.”

Fox Sports’ Tom LaMarre is begging for someone to step up and put a “Tiger pelt on the wall.”

Its worth reading.

Tiger is having a remarkable season thus far, with his second victory in three PGA regular event starts. And who knows what he would have done at the Nissan if he hadn’t been sick. So he’s two for two in events that he’s finished. If you count Dubai, he’s three for three.

And I’m feeling like a dope for not taking him on my Fantasy team. I had Mickelson and Garcia instead.

A couple of observations about Tiger this weekend.

First, he’s got to be one of the luckiest men on the planet. Villegas misses the fairway and he ends up behind a banyan tree (twice). Tiger misses in the same direction and still has a shot at the green. Other players hit a sand trap and their balls die. Tiger hits a sand trap, and the ball skips out to settle in a good spot on the green. Even more lucky: had he missed the trap, his ball would have skpped completely across the green and off the back side.

Second, no other player seems to be able to handle the pressure of challenging him. Mickelson, Beem and others simply self destructed. Toms had a shot at forcing a playoff at least, but couldn’t close it out on the 18th.

The Ford Championship had 17 of the World’s Top 20 in attendance, and only Toms showed up to play. Els was the next closest at seven shots back.

So in truth, Woods didn’t have to play his Sunday best to walk away with a “W.” And with that kind of competition, he might not lose again this year.