Serious setback for Tiger Woods?

What's really going on at Camp Tiger?...

Words: Tim Southwell Photography: Getty Images

It's been three months since we found out anything about the state of Tiger's physical and mental condition. So what's occurring?

Is he about to turn up unannounced at a tournament and shoot an opening round 63? Has he got a chance of playing at the Masters? Or, as is being suggested across certain social media channels, has he just suffered a serious setback in his rehabilitation?

According to Robert Lusetich, author of Unplayable: An Inside Account of Tiger's Most Tumultuous Season, Tiger is struggling to even sit.

https://twitter.com/RobertLusetich/status/701792054024638464

Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg moved quickly to quash these rumors that lit up twitter over the weekend.

“The tweets that appeared this weekend about Tiger’s health are ridiculous and absolutely false,” Steinberg said in a statement. “It’s reprehensible that every few months someone makes something up and it’s treated like a real story. Tiger continues to work on his rehabilitation and we will have an accurate update at the appropriate time.”

So, errrm... Tigers... doing what then...?

The last time Tiger said anything about his situation was way back on December 1st at that rather depressing press conference.

“There is no timetable for this," admitted Tiger. "That’s been the hardest mind-set adjustment. The fact that I just don’t know. So where is the light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t know, so that’s been hard.”

Maybe Tiger's caddie, the woefully under-employed Joe LaCava can shed some light on this?

“I still have faith he’s going to continue to do well and win,” LaCava told ESPN recently. “My thought is he will overcome the injury or whatever you want to call it. He might not be able to play as often as he would like. Once he’s healed from this, he’ll come back and play again and play well. My outlook is basically the same as when I started with him. He’s Tiger Woods.”

So LaCava isn't looking for alternative work any time soon. Could this be a sign that the dude is about to come back? It's 44 days from here to the first day proper of the Masters.

These are the tournaments between now and then, and our take on his chances of playing them...

Countdown to the Masters...

February 25th

Honda Classic at PGA National – (Best finish – T2nd, 2012)

Chances of playing: 0% - it's this weekend!

Don't do it Tiger. Contemplating a way out at the 2014 Honda Classic...

March 3rd

WGC at Doral – (Best finish: Won seven times)

Chances of playing: 0% – Tiger not eligible as his world ranking of 445 not good enough to qualify.

Tiger at WGC Doral 2014

March 10th

Valspar at Innisbrook (Not previously played)

Chances of playing: 10% – If he is fit he might want a low key return. But by the sounds of it, too soon.

Tiger kicking back and not being at the Valspar

March 17th

Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill (Best finish – Won eight times)

Chances of playing: 50% – You can potentially see this happening. Assume Tiger's camp are keeping some positive news from us. This is where Tiger would have been targeting his comeback.

"And then they said you'll get caught out over some cocktail waitresses and end up injured and this'll be the last time you win anything for ages..."