"The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta," the world No1 said in a statement.

If you believe that is the whole story, then you were probably naive enough to take Woods at his word when he hinted during his staged "apology" last month that he might be away from the game for a while. "I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out this year," he said then.

"I don't rule out this year"? Presumably Ari Fleischer, the former press spokesman for George W Bush and media-crisis management "expert" who, it was revealed last week, has been masterminding Woods's return to pubic life, decided "I don't rule out the next few weeks" lacked the required degree of sincerity from a man setting himself up as the redemption story of the decade.

Rich men have lost fortunes underestimating Woods's ability to perform miracles on the golf course (he did, after all, win the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines carrying a broken leg) but, given what he has been through since crashing his car outside his home in Florida last November – the scandal, the shame, the desertion of sponsors, the therapy – it is hard to believe he will step on to the first tee at Augusta National on 8 April as the tournament favourite in the minds of anyone bar the bookies who last night made him a ludicrous 3-1 favourite to win his fifth green jacket. The golf course is too challenging, the competition too good and the attendant pressures too much.

In the past Woods has always played to win. This time it feels as if he will be playing to limit scrutiny of his past conduct and to hell with the outcome of the tournament.

Like Woods, who is sure to encounter severe media scrutiny at the Masters no matter how much he tries to manipulate the press, Jose Mourinho is never far from a photographer's lens when in England. So it proved last night at Stamford Bridge, as his Inter Milan side knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League. Former Premier League referee Graham Poll, writing in the Daily Mail, suggests they were fortunate to do so, as Chelsea should have had a penalty:

Chelsea can once again bemoan their luck with penalty decisions in the Champions League after Wolfgang Stark refused to give two clear spot kicks after fouls from corners.

When the holding is slight and the blocking clever you can understand how difficult it is for the referee to detect it; but last night it was open, clear and obvious.

Frustration at tangling with Thiago Motta again in the final few minutes led to Didier Drogba appearing to stamp on him and once again see red as Chelsea exited Europe.

An inexperienced Norwegian saw Chelsea off last season — this year it was German inefficiency.