LOS ANGELES -- At various times during the comeback, when his world ranking reached heights that made such talk viable, Tiger Woods made no secret of the fact that he very much would like to play in the Olympic golf tournament this summer in Japan.
The words never came across as canned. They sounded sincere. He acknowledged it would be cool to be part of the Olympics in what probably would be his only chance. And he knew he was in position to pull it off.
All of which makes Friday's passing deadline to enter next week's WGC-Mexico Championship even more perplexing.