With the deadline on his season just hours away, there were — as always — far more questions than answers surrounding Tiger Woods.
The most pressing was whether he would effectively write off a second successive year by not meeting Friday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline to enter next week’s Bridgestone Invitational, an event he’s won seven times.
Woods ended that mystery late Thursday afternoon by announcing via Twitter and his website that he will play the Bridgestone in Akron. It's now highly likely Woods will try to salvage what's been shaping as a second lost season by showing up not only at Firestone Country Club, but the following week, too, at the year's final major, the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.
That, of course, assumes the injuries to his left knee and Achilles tendon have healed and there's no repeat of the disaster that was The Players Championship in May, when Woods was forced to limp home after just nine holes.
While much is uncertain for Woods, this much is sure: Woods, who hasn't won anywhere in the world in almost 22 months — since the tabloid scandal that so damaged his life — needs to play well in the coming weeks if he’s to play in more than just these two events.
That’s because he’s going to be on the outside looking in at the last big four tournaments on the PGA Tour calendar.
He currently sits 133rd in the FedEx Cup rankings. He needs to get inside the top 125 just to qualify for the first event of the playoff series, The Barclays, to be held this year at New Jersey’s venerable Plainfield Country Club.
Based on last year’s numbers, he’d need one top-six finish, two finishes of 24th or better or top-40 finishes in the final three qualifying events (the third is the Wyndham Championship, where it’s hard to imagine him playing) just to limp into the playoffs.
Now that the Firestone question has been answered, the next question becomes: Who’ll be carrying his bag now that Steve Williams, his caddie since 1999, has been fired?
The leading candidate, Englishman Billy Foster, this week assured his boss, Lee Westwood, that he won’t be leaving him to carry Woods’ bag.
One source with some knowledge of the situation thinks Woods may go with “a buddy” until he decides on a permanent choice. Potential candidates include childhood friends Bryon Bell and Jerry Chang. Both have caddied for him before.
And if that’s not enough, speculation continues to surround Woods’ relationship with swing coach, Sean Foley.
The pair began working together after last year’s Bridgestone Invitational, where Woods turned in his worst performance as a professional.
His four-day total of 18 over par left him ahead of just one player in the field, Henrik Stenson, who got out of his sick bed to play.
While there have been flashes of the Woods of old during the past year, there have also been swing miscues and no shortage of critics pointing the finger of blame at Foley’s Stack-and-Tilt-influenced theories.
One rumor that’s been circulating in recent weeks — that Woods is leaving Foley to work with Australian Dale Lynch, who coaches Woods’ closest friend on the tour, Arjun Atwal — can be dismissed.
Lynch told me Thursday that “there is no truth in that one.”
But it remains that Foley hasn’t practiced with Woods since May. Does that mean Woods hasn't practiced at all since May? Who knows?
I asked the Canadian whether they’ve had any contact at all during that time.
“I have talked to him, but just friends chatting.” he said via text message.
So what are we to decipher from that?
As always with Woods, conclusions are hard to come by.
Late on Thursday night, however, Foley said that he and Woods were scheduled to have a practice session on Friday in Florida. Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, also confirmed that Foley was still Woods’ coach.
While a growing number of those inside the ropes wonder whether Woods, who’s fallen outside of the world top 20 for the first time since January 1997, can make it back to the top, his old buddy Michael Jordan harbors no such doubts.
"I think he's waiting to explode again," Jordan told an Australian newspaper Thursday.
Jordan says Woods’ problem has been that he’s been wounded, both physically and spiritually, since the scandal that cost him his marriage, most of his sponsors and his image.
"A wounded dog has a tough time trying to keep winning battles,” he said.
"And because the battle was a lot tougher than I (think) even Tiger realized a while ago, he needs to heal before he gets back into these battles again.”
