Tiger's Tuesday News Dump And His Future

On the positive side, TigerWoods.com revealed that he's not playing the U.S. Open and Quicken Loans today, Tuesday June 7th, because the USGA is now making pairings off the Sectional results. They plan to release those Friday morning on Colin Cowherd's FS1 show.

Tiger and Steiny also waited until those sectionals played out as to not distract fans from a great day on the calendar for so many core golfers. Good for him.

But I heard from a few folks who weren't too pleased he upstaged the preview coverage of this week's events, the KPMG LPGA, Senior PGA at Philadelphia Cricket Club and the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, all because they don't believe he's even close to returning.

He can't win.

Except if he just concedes what is increasingly apparent: he's not close and only dangling the possibility of playing tournaments to either keep his spirits up or his name in the news.

After all, why is he still bothering to suggest The Open Championship as a possibility? Does he really think we believe he'll show up in Scotland having played (maybe) one tour event, in weather conditions that are generally not conducive to activating a back prone to issues?

Eventually, the continued carrot dangling followed by WD's will not get much attention. But as long as there are stories, ESPN crawls and social media outbursts, I suppose he'll keep us wondering. I can't fault him, as conceding that you are not able to do what you once did as well as anyone in the game's history, has to conjure up complex emotions. But there is also the danger that fans start to wonder if the last minute canceling of possible returns is merely a way to appease sponsors paying someone who isn't able to compete.