Tiger Woods Hires Ari Fleischer, Plans Return

Tiger Woods is expected to return to golf at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25, and he’s hired none other than former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to help him plan the comeback. “They were in his living room this week going over a strategy for how to handle Bay Hill in two weeks,” a source tells the New York Post. Another added that he’d be “shocked” if Woods didn’t play.

Palmer, too, has reportedly told close friends that he expects Tiger to play, and organizers are quietly preparing for an outsized media presence. One friend told the Golf Channel yesterday that he might return slightly earlier, at the Tavistock Cup on the 22nd. Woods hired Fleischer, who also tried to help Mark McGwire repair his image after the steroids scandal, because he knows he’ll have to answer press questions when he does return. (More Ari Fleischer stories.)