Woods return to golf is expected to be a big one

Tiger Woods has said that he will return to professional golf at the 2010 Masters tournament. 


"The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect," said Woods. "After long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta." 


Prior to his recent public scandal Woods was easily the most famous and popular golfer playing today. In 2008-2009 when Woods was absent from PGA tournaments due to injury the number of viewers dropped drastically. The over the course of the year the average decrease in total viewers was 46.8%. Click here to see the number of viewers in each separate tournament. Pay special attention to the decrease in viewers in tournaments that Woods won in the 2007-2008 season.


The news that Woods would be returning has been publicly expected for some time. Woods has systematically been trying to improve his image back to where it once was. Woods personal image was so damaged by his infidelity scandal that he lost a number of his sponsors, including Gillette, Gatorade and Accenture.


Woods is set to hold a news conference the Monday before the Masters begins and hopefully his publicity team will be able to reestablish his position and place woods in a positive light before he begins the tournament. ESPN executive was quoted as saying that "Tiger's return to competitive golf at this year's Masters Tournament will surely be one of the biggest stories the sporting world has seen." 


For Woods, every move, each breath, every bat of his eye will count because the world will be watching. No pressure.