Woods in China, promises to play in Memorial this year

Tiger Woods, who m is going to China to ‘stoke’ interest in golf, hasn’t officially announced it yet, but as we thought, it looks like he’s going to play in the Memorial later in May.

Jack Nicklaus revealed the news on Wednesday while talking to reporters.
“It’s as much conversation as I’ve ever had with Tiger,” Nicklaus said about talking to Tiger at Augusta National at the Masters.

“We talked about a lot of things. It was good. And he said, ‘Hey, (I’ll) see you in May. I’ll be at the Memorial.’ It’ll be nice to have Tiger back.”

Meanwhile, Nike has announced that Woods is going to China Friday to help “stoke local interest in the sport of golf and inspire athletes in China and Japan.”

Surely that would seem directly at-odds with China’s current position on golf?

In short: Yes, it’s a blatant contradiction. The reason it exists is because golf is an attractive proposition for foreign investors — which in turn makes it an attractive proposition for the Chinese government. China is home to a number of high-profile tournaments, golf academies continue to sprout-up, and the country has opened more golf courses in the last 10 years than any other country.

Woods is hardly going on some diplomatic mission. It’s coincidental timing given the country’s apparent seriousness towards it’s most recent crackdown, but Tiger’s forthcoming visit to China is simply the continuation of a muddled, contradictory policy: As long as the general public perceives the Chinese Government as being anti-golf, Woods can probably sneak-off as many visits as he wants.

•Culled from usatoday.com