Tiger still not ready yet

Tiger Woods has played just nine holes of competitive golf since finishing up the Masters on April 10. He returned Tuesday to Aronimink Golf Club for his first press conference in five weeks, since his last appearance at the AT&T National venue on May 24.

These infrequent appearances in public, plus the uncertainty over when he will recover from injuries to his left knee and left Achilles tendon, has fueled an out of sight, out of mind school of thought that have many folks saying he no longer has a chance to break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles.

They're saying now that Rory McIlroy has the most potential to do it, a suggestion that the baton already has been passed from Woods to the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland.

Woods, who announced last Wednesday he would not be playing in the AT&T National, isn't buying the fact that his pursuit of the Golden Bear's record is over.

"I'm 35, not 65," he said. "I've still got some years ahead of me."

Still, he seems to have no problem with comparisons to McIlroy, who completed a dominating 8-stroke victory at the U.S. Open 10 days ago for his first major championship.

"It's not disrespectful at all," said Woods, sporting a few days growth of beard and a goatee. "I think it's complimentary that I've had a pretty good career so far. I've been out here 14, 15 years now and I've had my success. It's awfully complimentary that people look at it this way.

"Is it motivating? Absolutely not. My motivation right now is to get back to where I can play the way I know I can play and feeling good again because I haven't felt good in a number of years. I'm looking forward to that."

He also was OK with a comment from Mark O'Meara, his good friend, that McIlroy has a better swing than Woods did at 22.

"I totally agree," Woods said. "He needs to obviously continue working on it and continue getting better. He's still young. It's fun to see obviously someone who is of his age play the way he did and handle himself the way he did" after his final-round collapse at the Masters.

Woods called McIlroy's performance at Congressional "some seriously good playing" and admired the way he kept pushing for birdies to maintain or lengthen his lead.

"That was cool to watch," he said.

As for his injuries, Woods admitted that he returned to action too soon at the Players Championship, where he withdrew after just nine painful holes on May 12. This time, he said, there will be no timetable as to when he's coming back, something that is "very different for me."

"I don't know when that is going to be," he said. "That's kind of the frustrating thing about it right now is I don't know. I am getting stronger, starting to get more explosive again. I'm going to eventually start practicing and playing again, then ultimately come out here and play against these guys."

Still, he did not completely rule out playing in the British Open in two weeks, saying "I'm just playing it by ear right now."

Woods, who said there has been no discussion of knee surgery, admitted he wants to be "smarter" in the way he comes back from his injuries.

"All the years of playing when my knee wasn't very good and playing through it," he said. "Unfortunately I broke my leg and still played [at the 2008 U.S. Open]. That's not exactly smart. I'm going to do it differently this time. I am going to come back when I'm 100 percent ready."

Woods played in five events prior to the Players, tying for fourth at the Masters and for 10th at the WGC-Cadillac event. He said he has not swung a club since the Players, but has practiced putting.

He fully believes that once he has recovered from his injuries, he can return to his old form.

"I feel pretty confident of what my future holes and very excited about it," he said. "I'm excited about coming out here and being ready to go instead of trying to kind of patch it, which I've been for a while."

When that is, however, no one knows.

Foundation in Center City. The Tiger Woods Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of this tournament, announced it will offer its programs to ninth-grade students at the KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy charter school at 12th and Vine beginning this fall. The programs will expand by one grade every year after that.