Jack Nicklaus calls Tiger Woods’ status ‘puzzling’

It doesn’t seem like anyone, including Tiger Woods, is really clear on what his future is in golf for this year or beyond. What the public knows right now is that Woods is on the shelf until further notice.

Jack Nicklaus is just as befuddled as the many of you. When talking about Woods on Sunday in the NBC broadcast booth during the final round of The Honda Classic, the 18-time major winner seemed confused about where Woods is physically and mentally.

“And now, I don’t know about Tiger,” Nicklaus said. “That is the biggest puzzle to me that I know. I just don’t know where he is and where his mind is. I don’t know.”

Woods started the 2017 year with an ambitious schedule of four events in a five-week span. After missing the cut with 76-72 at Torrey Pines, he flew to Dubai to shoot a birdie-free 77 in Round 1 of the Dubai Desert Classic before withdrawing prior to Round 2, citing “lower back spasms” for the fourth consecutive time he has pulled out of a tournament. Woods then didn’t conduct a news conference with the media while hosting the Genesis Open at Riviera, with Woods’ agent saying his medical staff suggested Woods remain “horizontal.”

Then again, had Woods appeared to the news conference he cancelled twice, he would have been interrogated about his back. And he clearly doesn’t have a final answer on how he’ll proceed from here. So why say anything until he knows for sure, is what the Golden Bear thinks.

“You’re going to ask him the same exact questions, it’ll be the same exact answers that he had before,” Nicklaus said. “And I think from his standpoint, he’d be tired of answering them.”