Tiger starts to practice golf again

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

Tiger Woods is closer to competing again.

Woods is back home after a week of family counseling in Arizona and is trying to get back into a routine that includes fitness and his first significant practice in 15 weeks.

Woods returned to his home near Orlando on Saturday and has been hitting balls on the range at Isleworth, not far from where he ran his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree in a middle-of-the-night accident on Nov. 27 that set off shocking revelations of infidelity.

Golf’s No. 1 player still has not decided when he will return to competition.

Woods was photographed hitting balls at Isleworth on Feb. 18, the day before he ended nearly three months of silence by speaking to a small group of associates at the TPC Sawgrass in a 131‚Ñ2-minute statement that was televised around the world. Those photos of Woods were arranged to counter the paparazzi trying to follow his every move since Thanksgiving.

Woods has not practiced in earnest since winning the Australian Masters in Melbourne on Nov. 15 for his 82nd victory worldwide.

“I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be,” Woods said in his statement at Sawgrass. “I don’t rule out that it will be this year.”

Woods said he had attended inpatient therapy “for the issues I’m facing” for 45 days, from the end of December to early February. He said he was leaving the next day for more therapy, without saying what kind. The Associated Press learned he went to Arizona for a week of family and marriage counseling with his wife, Elin.

News of him getting back into a routine is sure to begin speculation when he might return to the PGA Tour. Woods announced on Dec. 4 that he was taking an “indefinite break” to try to salvage his marriage.

To date, he has missed only two tournaments he typically would have played — Torrey Pines and the Match Play Championship — although he had been leaning toward playing Pebble Beach this year because it will host the U.S. Open in June.

Woods is not likely to play next week in the World Golf Championship at Doral, where he has won three times.

His next possibility is the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.