‘Sick and tired’ of sitting out, Tiger Woods may target return at the Memorial

For Tiger Woods’ enthusiasts, Fridays at 5 p.m. ET have taken on new significance as that time each week holds clues as to where and when the former world No. 1 will make his much-anticipated return to the PGA Tour.

The last Friday in April passed with buzz about Woods’ latest comeback from injury involving a start at Quail Hollow proving nothing more than rumors.

The golf world now circles May 6 and May 13 as potentially portentous dates on the 2016 “Tiger’s Back — Again” calendar. That’s because Reuters reported over the weekend that Woods had booked lodging in or around Dublin, Ohio, the site of Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament, for the week of the June 2-5 event.

Woods, ranked 499th before the attempted Monday completion of the weather-delayed Zurich Classic, has made similar arrangements for The Players Championship, according to Reuters. Those plans may be of the “just in case” variety, since Tiger — despite hitting buckets of golf balls of late, slamming drives, shaping shots, and accepting accolades from spectators at various venues — may not be quite ready for a return next week at TPC Sawgrass.

June would give Woods more time to continue rehabbing his back, which underwent two surgeries since his last tour start in August at the Wyndham Championship, and still afford him at least one competitive tuneup before the U.S. Open two weeks after Nicklaus’ tourney. Woods has officially registered to tee it up at Oakmont, which ratcheted up expectations that a Tiger sighting at an official tour contest was nigh.

The tourney host, himself, recently said the odds were “no better than one in five” that Tiger would play in the event he has won five times.

“If he wants to play, I would love to have him,” Nicklaus told reporters last month. “If he doesn’t think he’s ready to play, then he shouldn’t play.”

While he is not obligated to start the second of four majors on the men’s 2016 schedule, Woods has shed the cloak of near-invisibility he wore for several months after his October procedure and has turned up, Zelig-like, from the Sunshine State to Sin City, with stops in between.

Woods unveiled his newest, post-operation swing in a home video of himself “progressing nicely” as he tepidly hit a 9-iron into a simulator at his Jupiter abode.

He then wowed ‘em at a junior clinic and exhibition at Sage Valley Golf Club in South Carolina, where Golf Channel and other interested bystanders issued breathless dispatches about Tiger’s prowess.

Woods’ next appearance came during the grand opening of the back nine of his Bluejack National course in Montgomery, Texas, where he played five actual holes to the great delight of those who followed him across the abbreviated layout.

The latest and greatest evidence that Woods is in what Notah Begay III termed the “back half of his progression” stage of his rehab occurred during the weekend when the 14-time major champion put on a 30-minute range show as part of his Tiger Jam charity affair in Las Vegas.

The live Periscope session may have expired, but suffice it to say that a grand time was had by all — on the course and in the casino.

As to the former, Woods noted that one drive of some 290 yards was “not that far compared to what I can do. I’ve got a lot more in the tank,” according to GolfChannel.com. “Right now, you see me just cruising, hitting shots. I’m not going to hurt myself out here.”

Woods also professed to know not when or where he would take his next competitive shot but he could barely endure another moment sitting on the bench.

“Dude, if I could tell you, I would, because I’m sick and tired of being on the sidelines,” Woods said. “I want to start competing against these boys. I miss it.”

With Woods not likely to divert from his usual routine of skipping the two Texas tilts that this year take place between The Players and U.S. Open, and with the punditry agreeing that playing Sawgrass may be too soon for his recovering back, everyone’s best guess is that we’ll see Tiger at Jack’s Place.

But, again, this is Tiger Woods we’re conjecturing about, so get your trigger finger ready for the new Friday evening ritual that this week involves obsessively checking to see if a certain winner of 79 PGA Tour clashes will go for his 80th at The Players.