Tiger Woods ‘back for the Masters’ says ex-coach

Amid rumours that Tiger Woods is considering staying away from pro golf until 2012, he has been urged by his former coach to come out of hiding as quickly as possible and get back to golf in time for this year's US Masters and British Open.

Butch Harmon says Tiger should acknowledge that his marriage is over and face the music and get on with his career. He will be humiliated in the short term - but it will soon be over, says Harmon, who coached the world number one for ten years.

"The golfing public would like to see Tiger Woods do a press conference," Harmon told Sky Sports. "To stand there in front of everybody, take his medicine, be humble, be embarrassed, be humiliated, and answer the questions. But where the hell is he? We could find Osama bin Laden easier than we can find Tiger Woods. How long can you spend on a yacht in the middle of the ocean?"

Quite where Tiger has disappeared to since he announced on December 11 that he was quitting golf indefinitely in a bid to rescue his marriage to Elin Nordegren, has been exercising the media in recent days. Rumours have him renting a safari lodge in Africa, taking a whole floor of the Trump International hotel in central Manhattan and cruising in his yacht Privacy. He has also been 'spotted' in France, San Francisco and Long Island.

And if you believe friends of Rachel Uchitel, the first of 18 women to be 'outed' over the past two months as a mistress of the golfer, then he never left Florida: her friends claim she and Tiger have been meeting over Christmas and New Year at a house in Palm Beach. A source told the News of the World: "Rachel told us she sneaks out from her [family] house to meet up with him in disguise - once she even worse a ski mask."

The source went on: "They are obsessed with one another. Tiger has told Rachel his wife Elin never really fulfilled his needs."

Whether or not Tiger divorces Elin - at a reported cost of $300 million - and gets together with Rachel, as predicted by many in the media, all that concerns Butch Harmon is that he returns to the golf course as soon as possible. And Harmon is confident he will.

"Will he play before the Masters? I think that's the biggest question," said Harmon. "I happen to think he will. I have nothing to base that on other than the fact that I know how much he loves to play golf, and that life.

"You look at where the major venues are this year, two of his favourite venues are Pebble Beach and the Old Course at St Andrews. I think he will play in those... He's the strongest person, mentally, that's ever played our game. If there's anyone who can block out this extra stuff that's going on around him, he's probably the guy."

But Harmon, 66, who has survived his own personal crises, including booze and divorce, insists Tiger must face the fact that his marriage is finished. "I don't really buy the part that they are trying to get back together. I can't imagine that she would stay." ·