Hiatus continues: Woods will skip Doral

The grainy photos show Tiger Woods practicing, but that's probably as close as we're going to get to seeing the world No. 1 on a golf course for a while.

As was widely expected, the 5 p.m. deadline to commit to next week's World Golf Championship-CA Championship passed without a word from Woods, officially extending his well-documented hiatus from the PGA Tour into the Florida Swing.

Although Woods in his public statement last month said he was unsure when he would return to competition, speculation grew that it could be soon after reports confirmed that he was back home in Orlando and working on his game. Along with eyewitness accounts from fellow tour players of Woods looking impressive on the range, the gossip website TMZ.com released the first "unstaged" photos of Woods practicing at Isleworth Country Club on Friday.

Still unclear is when Woods plans to put that practice to the test. After the CA Championship, a tournament Woods has won three times, the next possibility is the exhibition Tavistock Cup between neighboring Orlando communities Isleworth and Lake Nona March 22-23, followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill later that week.

Beyond that, Woods could be entertaining returning next month at the Masters -- an appearance that could ensure limited harassment from the media and galleries, but would also surely tax a golf game that has been idle for months.

-- Sam Weinman