Tiger Woods Is On His Way Back, Perhaps, Maybe And If

Oh that tricky Eldrick Woods.

He’s back, he’s gonna play, shortly, maybe, just maybe, if everything goes right.

That was the word from Woods World on Wednesday.

Is this Hello World!, 20 years later?

The golf world went bonkers after Tiger Woods went to his website with the exciting news that his back is whispering to him:

“Hey, let’s give it a go!”

Here’s the official word from Woods, probably as penned by Stiney (Mark Stineberg) or one of his PR stooges:

“My rehabilitation is to the point where I’m comfortable making plans but I still have a lot of work to do.”

Ah, that magic word — “but.”

Wait, there’s more:

“Whether I can play depends on my continued progress and recovery. My hope is to have my game ready to go.”

Ah, the magic words “Whether” and “hope.”

We just love magic.

So here’s the deal — if indeed the recovery allows and hope comes through, Woods want to return to action October 15-18 at the Safeway Open, which used to be the Frys.com.  It’s played out there in Napa, wine country and Emiliano Grillo is the defending champion.  Merlot for everyone!

Again, we warn you, Tiger “hopes” to play.  Read the fine print on every Tiger disclaimer.

Now if all really goes well, Woods is going to hop on Air Eldrick and fly over to Turkey in November.  The Turkish Airlines Open is a European Tour stop and Tiger has a tough time saying “no” to those $3 million appearance fees. So again, if all goes well, appear he will in Antalya, Turkey, provided there’s no coup in the government that will prevent it.

Then it’s back to America and Tiger will gather himself before he hosts the Hero event December 1-4 down there at Albany in the Bahamas.  Bust out the limbo sticks, Tiger’s feeling limber!

The interesting part of all of this is that on top of Woods’ much-anticipated and bally-hooed return, there will be even more equipment speculation.

Yes, Nike’s shutting it down when it comes to sticks and stuff leaving Eldrick to try out whatever tickles his fancy and his wallet.

Tiger’s lap-dog — Notah Begay — tells us that Tiger’s expansive dining room at home looks like an Edwin Watts golf shop on steroids.

Ah, so many sets of irons, so little time.

The fact of the matter is that it’s most likely that Woods won’t be unveiling new clubs any time soon, at least not until someone drops a few million into his greasy palms.

But his is really great news.

Everyone can stop speculating on when he’ll return and we can now start wondering how good or bad Woods will play, if and when he actually does show up at Silverado next month.

It will be good to see how golf’s most famous surgically-repaired back is doing.

All we need is a little hope, a little luck and a big dose of maybe.