Because Nike, MusclePharm and the rest of his sponsors are not paying him Millions of dollars per year to attend his kids soccer games and design golf courses.
He doesn’t need either one. He has more money than he can ever spend (unless he marries again), and he’s exempt for the majors (lifetime for Masters and PGA, until 60 for the Open, and until 2019 for the US Open), which is all he cares about.
The harm of playing is that he is likely to suck, thereby causing immediate mortification, and possible long-term loss of confidence and/or motivation to continue practicing.
I think NFM is probably right – he’s under pressure from sponsors, although again, he really doesn’t need their money.
I realize Tiger emphasizes the majors, but unless he plays a reasonably complete schedule, the majors will be the only big events for which he qualifies, and that’s a difficult scenario for success.
Does he care about next year’s Olympics? He’ll need a strong ranking to participate.
As for his confidence, it’s already impaired. The only definitive way to restore it is by playing Tour events.
As a 20-time winner (and then some), he has a lifetime exemption for all regular PGA Tour events, regardless of how seldom he plays. And he’s exempt for the Players until 2019, by virtue of winning it in 2013. A single PGA win in the elite events he favors would make him eligible for the Bridgestone WGC, and possibly the Match Play. So he’ll have plenty of chances to rack up points, once he exorcises his demons. If he gets back even to where he was in 2013, let alone 2007, it won’t take him long to get back on top.
That’s a good point. I think he probably does care about making the 2016 Olympics, since he will be 44 for the next one, even assuming golf remains an Olympic sport.
But stinking up Augusta isn’t going to help him get there. I’m not saying he should stop playing a regular schedule forever, I’m just saying he shouldn’t come back until he’s solved his problems.
Again, there’s no rush. If he regains his 2013 form any time this year, he’ll easily make the Olympics. Three good wins should be enough to make the world top 15 (the probable Olympic cutoff for an American golfer). For reference, he won five big events in 2013.
The only definitive way to restore it is by playing WELL in Tour events. Rushing the process won’t gain him anything.
I understand that practice isn’t the same as competition, and that there will be a transition period, after he’s solved his problems in practice, where he has to relearn how to do it under the gun. But if he can’t even do it during practice, there’s no chance he’ll snap out of it during competition.
I guess I can’t argue, but is there a precedent for this? All the other “yips” sufferers seem to have continued playing through their difficulties. I’m thinking of Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson. Ian Baker-Finch missed 32 consecutive cuts before retiring. Jack Nicklaus seems to have played regularly until he was near 60.
Ben Hogan skipped a lot of events, but he had severe injury issues.
An American Golfer will be probably have to be in the top 10 to qualify for the Olympics. There is a limit of 4 golfers from any county making the Olympics and as of right now, these four golfers would be representing the USA.
#3 Bubba Watson
#4 Jordan Spieth
#7 Dustin Johnson
#9 Jim Furyk
Jimmy Walker, Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed are all ranked inside the Top 15, yet are not qualified for the Olympics.
Good point. Of course, if Tiger starts winning again, then there won’t be as many points available for the other Americans, and enough of them may drop out of the top 15 to let Tiger be the fourth-ranked American, even if he isn’t in the top ten. But that’s assuming he can go from horrible a couple of months ago, to best or second best in the world (given the lag in the WGR, he’ll need to be that good) by the end of this year. Not an easy feat.
Well, of course I’ll be watching the Masters and rooting for him, but I have a feeling it’s going to get ugly.
Tiger’s good practice rounds and relaxed demeanor have been noticed by Vegas. He was a 60-1 shot last week, and I wouldn’t have touched that bet. He’s now 20-1, with only five guys ahead of him. Still a long way from being practically even money in his prime, but now I regret not putting money on him to make the cut.
It looks like this week won’t be so painful to watch after all. And boy, his kids were cute at the par-3 contest today.
Lindsey was cute as well 
The online “featured group” schedule appears less than ideal for following the superstar players. Coverage of Phil and Rory will be sparse this morning, and same for Tiger Friday morning. But the shot track capability at Masters.com is much appreciated.
Those bastards do it every year. They put Tiger in the featured group on the day when he is on the regular broadcast anyway, and then you don’t see him at all on the other day.
I never thought I’d be happy to see Tiger in 41st place, but today’s round really wasn’t bad at all. Lots of rust, as expected, but he seems to be regaining his scrambling ability, which was what made him the best in the world for so long. And his driving was pretty good, too. I don’t think there’s much chance he can catch the red-hot Spieth this week, but it looks like he’ll be back in contention this summer.
Fuck Tiger. Jordan Spieth just waltzed into history. I’d love to see him take the Green Jacket, but he needs to overcome the Second Place Syndrome he seems to be dealing with lately. This is going to be great tournament. So many new and up and coming golfers. Fuck Tiger. i won’t be surprised if he misses the cut.
I was surprised at Tiger’s performance. They chipping yips were completely absent. He went bonkers on #9 (hit his drive into #1 fairway then hit his second sideways into a tree) but he pulled it together after that. I thought for sure he was headed to a 78 after the front 9.
I picked Jason Day and am happy with that. He’s in a good spot.
I wish you’d get off the fence.
Very enjoyable performance today from Tiger, and it’s nice to see him (mostly) relaxed and (occasionally) smiling.
The tournament coverage seems more fucked up than I realized. The featured groups are not receiving anywhere near 18-hole attention, and of course no one else is. Everything focuses on the back nine, which essentially duplicates the specialized online channels dedicated to Amen Corner and 15/16.
The coverage limitations should be less of an issue for the weekend.
In what sense? He’s a great player, especially for his age, but leading in the first round gets you into the trivia books, not the history books.
Fuck Tiger? Even if Jordan goes on to win, he’ll be older than Tiger was when he won the Masters by 12 shots, and he’ll have half as many PGA wins as Tiger had at the same age.
Let’s let him win a couple of majors before we talk about historic achievements. There was a kid named Sergio Garcia, who won his first pro tournament at 17, had 3 PGA wins at age 21, and at 19 took Tiger to the wire in the PGA Championship. If there was ever anybody who couldn’t miss winning multiple majors, it was him.
Just a wonderful golf round from Spieth today. Anytime you shoot 3 shots better than anyone in the field, it is a great round of golf. This is fifth competitive round and first one in the 60s despite his runnerup finish last year. Five for five at par or better. He got a couple good breaks and like a good player, he took advantage of them.
Tiger had three birdies today, all on par 5s. He really did not have a good chance at any of the other holes. His short game turned a 76 into a 73.
If I were a Tiger fan, I would be concerned that he didn’t pick the correct shot. He should have played a less risky draw shot on his 2nd shot on 8. Instead, from the left side of fairway, he hit a high fade over the trees. A lot could have gone wrong with that shot. Same thing on hole 7, 2nd shot.
And I don’t know what he was doing on 14 by aligning his feet 20 left of the green to the left hole location. He was 160 yds and I saw no reason to hit a Bubba-like slice to that hole location.
It looks like a draw shot is not in his current repertoire. He missed drives badly on #2 and #9, and slightly on #12 which are optimally played with a right to left shot.
What I saw of Tiger, is that his long game is not ready for Prime time yet. His short game was up to snuff though. I think it is pretty close to 50/50 that he makes or misses the cut. The 10 shot rule is probably his best chance.
Augusta Weather forecast looks good for the rest of the weekend so that is good news.
I’ll take that. As he said today, the short game is supposed to be his strength. Certainly he needs to improve the long game, but he can win with a few deficiencies in that area.
I do fear for his longevity, especially after witnessing his play from the rough at 7. Ken Venturi once remarked after a similar shot at Firestone: “If I swung that hard, I’d disintegrate.”
Isn’t there is this Irish kid, whazziname, won a few majors here and there…?
Another banner day for JS. His weakness is Sundays, so we’ll have to see. Amazing mature for such a young man.
Oh, and did I say Fuck Tiger? 
Hey, I don’t begrudge Tiger all his accomplishments. But his days are over, and I’m sick of hearing about him.
And is that David Duval on TGC? Sheesh, I’d hardly recognize him!!
The thing that peeves me about the Masters is that there were very limited opportunities to watch Jordan Spieth’s round live today. C’mon Augusta, get over yourselves.