No Bay Hill For Tiger, But At Least We Have '97 To Read About!

Tiger tells TigerWoods.com that Bay Hill next week is not option despite his desire to honor the late Arnold Palmer.

As Bob Harig notes for ESPN.com, this makes the Masters all but a no-go. It's the lack of any public appearances that is even more disconcerting.

Woods missed two tournaments he was scheduled to play, the Genesis Open and the Honda Classic, and now is out of an event he dominated for most of his career. Woods has made no public appearances since the Dubai event and did not appear at the Genesis tournament that supports his foundation.

The latest developments would appear to put next month's Masters in serious doubt, although Woods played the tournament two years ago after taking a nine-week break to work on his game.

The first taste of Tiger's upcoming book written in conjunction Lorne Rubenstein has been published in the March issue of Golfweek. Here's a sampling.

Naturally, I couldn't resist enjoying this little reminder of Monty and his mouth.

If I needed any extra motivation for my third round, Colin Montgomerie provided it during his media conference the day before. Monty was in second place, three shots behind me, and so we were going to play together in the last twosome on Saturday, just after two o’clock. At the conference, Monty was asked about our prospects for Saturday, and he spoke his mind, saying that everybody would see in the third round what I was made of, and that experience was a “key factor.” … His comments only strengthened my resolve to play my best golf the rest of the way.

I had a clean card, eleven pars and seven birdies, for 65. That was the kind of golf I had been working toward. Monty and I shook hands on the eighteenth green. His 74 had put him twelve shots behind me, after starting the round three shots behind. He was beaten up but cordial.