Here’s a scenario to consider: Tiger Woods playing golf for the U.S. Olympic team.
No, we’re not saying it’s going to happen, but it’s fun to think about. And we have to think Tiger has. At his press conference before this week’s Quicken Loans National event at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C., Tiger said that while he’s not ready to play just yet, “I’m still progressing and I’m still getting stronger,” and “I keep getting physically better. I just hope everything clicks in and I can [play competitive golf] sooner than later.”
Admittedly, that doesn’t sound like he’ll be ready in seven weeks to tee it up in Rio, but you get the feeling he’d like to. For instance, when asked about Rory McIlroy opting out off Olympic play, Tiger said, “I think it will be a spectacular event just because it’s the Olympics. It would be better if we had a more top-heavy field… We have these top-heavy fields and I think the Olympics deserve that.”
Do the Olympics deserve Tiger? Only he can say. And it’s not like he’s in the running, since he’s ranked somewhere down near 600th in the world at the moment. But maybe if enough other players drop out for “family reasons” and concerns about the Zika virus. And how about the Olympics as the stage for Tiger to return to? Hello, world, indeed!