Tim Finchem sat in the booth at 18 at the Blue Monster on Sunday and was asked by NBC Sports' Dan Hicks if he had any inkling of when Tiger Woods would return to the Tour.  His response prompted a Reuters piece now storming the globe.

"All of the speculation (is) about what is going to happen at the end of March, I think if he's going to play at the end of March or early April, we will hear pretty soon because he recognizes we need time to do it."

We will know about the potential for Woods to play either the unofficial Tavistock Cup or the Arnold Palmer Invitational - both in Orlando - by the end of the week.  That is the deadline that the Tour sets for entry to events is the Friday before tournament week at 5pm ET.  Tiger typically tips his hand at 4:30pm ET or so, just in case the fax machine breaks.

If the deadline comes and goes for another Tour event, then speculation would singularly focus on a Tiger sighting at the Masters.  Woods would hypothetically just have to show up minutes before his Thursday tee time at the Masters because there are no alternates.

Either way, it does not really matter where Woods chooses to play his first tournament.  He can get the tough part done by showing up to Bay Hill, taking his lumps from the crowd and the traditional media, and shut everyone up if he wins.  Or, he can take the friendlier route and play in the Masters.  The media access is much more controlled and the regulations for the patrons are enforced much more stringently.

That said, the case made for Augusta (or Tavistock) is that Woods would prefer a tournament where papparazzi cannot be credentialed.  TMZ, Radar Online, and such would be turned away at both of those events.  Fine, they might not get a workstation in the media center and a catered lunch ticket, but that doesn't mean they lack access to Tiger.  Seems like they have not had a problem thus far in finding out Woods' whereabouts and getting photographs - albeit very blurry ones - of him in action.  They have sources and cash to pay for information. 

While they may not be in plain sight at the venue of Tiger's comeback, the papparazzi can still attend events.  Ever read a Sky Mall catalog? They could buy a pen, keychain, watch, or sunglasses with a camera embedded in it.  Effectively, they could get access to Woods without really needing much more than some B-tier spy gear.

His play inside of the ropes is not really of much interest to the papparazzi, though.  The intrigue for them is in what Woods does outside of the ropes and off the course.  Woods can be followed.  He can be stalked.  It can happen anywhere - Orlando, Augusta, Mars.  If Tiger opts to play a tournament, he has to enter and leave out of the same gate.  Effectively, he is trapped before the papparazzi even have to try to find him.

So, really, it is no issue when Tiger returns.  He will still face a hungry army of guerrilla photogs.  Eventually, he has to come to terms with public taunting.  It's only a matter of time, really.

In that case, maybe Tiger should have hired Jack Bauer?