What Will Tiger Woods’ Early Season Schedule Look Like?

“Would I like to play a full schedule every year for the next decade plus?  Yeah, I would, that would be great.  Can I?  I don’t know.  We’ll see.  I’m going to do everything I can.”

Those are your words to live by from Tiger Woods, who now actually has 72 holes in the books to close out 2016.

He made it all four days down in Albany, finished third-from-last in his own deal down there.  Doesn’t matter, didn’t break anything, didn’t tweak anything, didn’t pull anything.  Everyone’s favorite Cablanasian (he made that up, we didn’t) shot a nifty four-under par, which was good enough to beat the pants off Emiliano Grillo and Russell Knox.

Now Tiger’s back to the drawing board.  He needs new equipment.  He will keep his old friend Scotty Cameron (the Newport 2), for sure, he’ll hang on for dear life to his old Nike irons but the search will go on for a driver and fairway woods.  The TaylorMade M2 betrayed the heck out of him for most of the week.

Today’s task at hand is to figure out what Tiger’s early 2017 schedule may look like because he’s not telling, neither is Stiney (aka TW agent Mark Stineberg).

Used to be that Woods would start his season in the Middle East where they would pay him appearance fees in the $2-$3 million range.  In 2014 the Middle East fell out of love with Woods.  No more fat appearance fees.  The lads in Abu Dhabi and Dubai figured it wasn’t worth it.

So let’s get right to it and take a look at what Tiger’s early 2017 itinerary might look like:

FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN (Jan 26-29):  Rickie Fowler is the favorite golfer of State Farm.  Still, Tiger Woods has had a long-standing love affair with Torrey Pines, he’s won eight times there.  Great course, great test.  If this is indeed his first event of 2017, it will give a more accurate picture as to the actual state of his game.

DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC (Feb. 2-5):  Maybe Stiney begs and pleads and sends the endless hours of tape showing that the commentators didn’t care about anyone else at the Hero World Challenge but Tiger.  “Hey guys, they’ll talk about my guy non-stop and your viewship will go off the charts!”  With that, he might squeeze a million or so out of them, after all, oil prices are up a bit these days.

GENESIS OPEN (Feb. 16-19):  Smart move by the old L.A. Open.  Tiger’s not a fan of Riviera but getting his Foundation as the host and beneficiary was the move needed to get Woods in the field.  Must play, has to play, will play.

HONDA CLASSIC (Feb. 23-26):  Support your neighborhood golf tournament.  PGA National is a short commute from the Woods Compound up there on Jupiter Island.  This is his neck of the woods and after each round he can invite folks over to the Woods Jupiter restaurant that he owns and he can buy a round of drinks for everyone.  Or not.

Tiger Takes A Break.

BAY HILL INVITATIONAL (March 16-19):  Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club has been very, very good to Tiger and this is a big year for the event, first year without Arnold.  Course has been friendly to Woods and there are probably a lot of former girlfriends still around Orlando who would love to say hi to Tiger.

That’s it.  Bay Hill will probably be Tiger’s final warm-up for Augusta.  It gives him three weeks off to rest and prepare for the first major of the season.  The Masters comes early this year, first week in April (6-9).

The biggest change in the life of Tiger is his world ranking.  Until he gets back in the top 60, he won’t be eligible for any of the WGC events and those have been the staple of his career when it comes to scheduling.

These event would give Tiger the three or so months of work that Jack Nicklaus says he needs.

Only time will tell.