Tiger Woods has hired former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer to help with damage control and a strategy for returning to golf, according to the New York Post. Sources told the Post that the former presidential advisor to George W. Bush has been meeting frequently with Woods where the two have been plotting a return strategy for the Arnold Palmer Invitational March 25 at Bay Hill.
Last week, Jack Nicklaus said that he believed Woods would play at least one warm-up event before heading to Augusta for the Masters in April. Woods’ longtime friend and neighbor Mark O’Meara told Golf Channel earlier this week that he wouldn’t be surprised to see Woods make his return at the Tavistock Cup, March 22-23, at Isleworth and that those exhibition matches would be a good way to ease back into the public spotlight.
“They were in his living room this week going over a strategy for how to handle Bay Hill in two weeks,” a source told the Post regarding Fleischer and Woods.
Fleischer, 49, was press secretary from January 2001 to July 2003 and left for a career as a consultant. He formed Ari Fleischer Sports Communications in 2008 and most recently advised embattled St. Louis Cardinals hitting instructor Mark McGwire on his public admission to using steroids.