Tiger Woods reportedly closer to return

Tiger Woods is back home after a week of family counseling in Arizona and is trying to get back into a routine that includes fitness and his first significant practice in 15 weeks, a person with knowledge of his schedule said Tuesday.

Woods returned to his home near Orlando, Fla., on Saturday and has been hitting balls on the range at Isleworth, not far from where he ran his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree in a middle-of-the-night accident on Nov. 27 that set off shocking revelations of infidelity.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because only Woods is authorized to release such information, said golf’s No. 1 player still has not decided when he will return to competition.

Woods was photographed hitting balls at Isleworth on Feb. 18, the day before he ended nearly three months of silence by speaking to a small group of associates at the TPC Sawgrass in a 13-minute statement that was televised around the world.

Woods has not practiced in earnest since winning the Australian Masters in Melbourne on Nov. 15 for his 82nd victory worldwide.

“I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be,” Woods said in his statement at Sawgrass. “I don’t rule out that it will be this year.”

Daly rap sheet

John Daly has been suspended five times and cited 21 times for not giving his best effort, according to a 456-page rap sheet kept by the PGA Tour that is now public record because of libel lawsuit Daly failed to win.

The Florida Times-Union reported Tuesday on Daly’s disciplinary file, which the tour had to give Morris Publishing Co. during Daly’s libel lawsuit against a columnist who once worked for the newspaper. The Times-Union is part of the Morris group.

The lawsuit was dismissed on March 29.

The disciplinary file grew to 456 pages over 18 years of Daly’s career, starting in April 1991 when the tour said Daly cursed a playing partner and ending in the fall of 2008, when Daly was suspended for six months.

The two-time major champion was placed on probation six times, ordered to go to counseling or alcohol rehab seven times, cited for conduct unbecoming a professional 11 times and fined nearly $100,000, according to the file.

Most of the incidents have been widely reported, such as Daly trashing a hotel room in 1997 during the Players Championship or getting into a scuffle at Firestone with a 62-year-old man whose son, Jeff Roth, said Daly had hit into him at the World Series of Golf. Even so, the PGA Tour does not disclose its discipline, and Daly usually makes for good reading.