TIGER WOODS’ golfing future should become a lot clearer Saturday morning (Australian time) with the announcement of a public appearance before “a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates”.

A statement posted on his website says Tiger plans “to discuss his past and his future, and he plans to apologize for his behavior.”

“While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between him and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him. He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends, and that’s what he’s going to discuss,” it says.

Whilst the appearance, at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, at 11 am Friday (US EST) (3am Aus EDT) will be televised, no questions will be allowed.

His short website announcement, with the unfortunately imperious sounding headline “Tiger to give remarks Friday” ends with implicit information that it will not be a media conference in the usual sense. “His remarks will be open to a press pool for live coverage. It is NOT a news conference,” it says.

The announcement came at the same time as pictures were snapped of Woods training near his Florida home – so make of that what you will.

It was also released during the first round of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship – a tournament that many believed would mark Woods return to professional golf.

But Woods was always going to have to front up in some sort of public appearance and come clean before he ever teed off in a golf tournament again.