http://www.smh.com.au/sport/golf/wi...iger-will-miss-the-masters-20100107-lwxl.html
With that record to beat, there's no way Tiger will miss the Masters</HEADLINE><!-- Class 'push-0' just right-aligns the element so that the main content comes first. -->
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GARY D'AMATO
<CITE>January 8, 2010</CITE>
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<BOD>Sooner or later, Tiger Woods is going to go back to work.
When and where he returns to the PGA Tour is the great unknown. His self-imposed ''indefinite'' break from the game after the disclosure of his shocking extramarital gymnastics could last weeks, perhaps months.
A few have even speculated he could take the entire 2010 season off to straighten out his private life, but if you buy into that theory you don't know much about Woods. He will be back sooner than later, because golf is not only what he does, it's who he is.
It is said there is no way he will miss the Masters (April 8-11), no matter the condition of his marriage or the progress of his self-examination.
He will not, he cannot, pass on an opportunity to draw one step closer to Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major championship titles.
The number of chances is finite: four per year until a golfer reaches his mid-40s, when his skills begin to decline. Woods knows each start in a major is precious and any major he skips is one he can never get back.
He has won 14 of them and turned 34 on December 30. He is still in his prime, but is aware that his physical decline could be hastened by a reconstructed left knee that might still be giving him problems.
Also, the major championship venues this year are set up for Woods to make a run at the Grand Slam. The US Open is at Pebble Beach, where he lapped the field by 15 shots in 2000, and the British Open is at the Old Course at St Andrews, where he won by eight shots in 2000 and by five in 2005. The PGA Championship is at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin.
It all starts at the Masters, a tournament he has won four times.
From Woods's perspective, there could be no better place to play golf than the insulated Augusta National Golf Club. The Masters is run not by the PGA Tour but by members of the club, who carefully orchestrate every detail of the tournament week.
Woods might hear the occasional heckler during practice rounds because those tickets are sold through a lottery. Once the tournament proper starts, however, the galleries consist mainly of patrons who have had their tickets for years, if not decades. They are knowledgeable, genteel golf fans who will hush when Woods is over the ball and applaud his good shots.
He also will face minimal media scrutiny at the Masters, which accredits only professional journalists who cover golf on a regular basis.
He will do his traditional Tuesday news conference sans
Entertainment Tonight and the moderator - an Augusta National member - will ask that questions be limited to golf. For the one or two who don't comply, Woods will have well-rehearsed answers. Then it will be on to business.
It's highly likely Woods will play at least one tune-up event beforehand. So peg his return to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, March 25-28 at Bay Hill Club, one gated community down the road from his home in Windermere, Florida.
Palmer, a grandfatherly figure to Woods, will be protective of him. Again, it will be a controlled atmosphere, with the PGA Tour bending over backwards to accommodate Woods and making sure distractions are kept to a minimum.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
