Golf: Woods in clean-up bid before return

Tiger Woods is believed to be undergoing treatment at a Mississippi rehabilitation centre in a bid to clean up his troubled life, with a return to professional golf expected within weeks.

Amid speculation that the disgraced golfer could retire from the sport completely, his former coach has hinted at a possible March return. Butch Harmon, who now coaches rival Phil Mickelson, has said that Woods would relish the opportunity to play at Pebble Beach and St Andrews, two of his preferred courses.

"If you want to put a timetable on it, I'd say you may see him in Florida before the US Masters (in April)," he told Sky Sports.

"Those who say he won't play again are crazy."

Radaronline.com reports that Woods, who hasn't been seen in public since the scandal broke, is currently receiving treatment at the centre where sex addicts generally undergo six-week programmes. It is understood that the Pine Grove centre in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, houses one of the top sexual addiction clinics in the United States.

X17.com had earlier claimed Woods was receiving treatment at one of two high-profile treatment centres in Arizona.

Officials are not saying if Woods is at the clinic, however Benoit Denizet-Lewis, a recovering sex addict and author of America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life, told ESPN that an unnamed source has confirmed he is there.

Denizet-Lewis spent time in the centre himself while researching for his book. In his blog he outlines the treatment at Pine Grove and says that if Woods and his estranged wife Elin Nordegren are serious about resolving his addiction, "she will be spending some time in treatment with Tiger."

Woods announced in December that he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from golf after the National Enquirer published allegations of an affair with New York nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel in late November.

The number of women alleged to have had affairs with Woods later grew to over a dozen.

- NZ HERALD ONLINE