Tiger Woods Hires Former White House Spokesman

Tiger Woods has hired a guy who knows a thing or two about dealing with a hostile press:

Tiger Woods has summoned someone even more significant than swing coach Hank Haney to help facilitate his wildly anticipated comeback.

Two sources in the golf community have told The Post that Ari Fleischer, the former presidential advisor to George W. Bush and the man who was brought in to help repair the steroid-shattered image of Mark McGwire, has been huddling with Woods, plotting a strategy for his return to golf — at the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting March 25 at Bay Hill in Orlando.

“They were in his living room this week going over a strategy for how to handle Bay Hill in two weeks,” one source told The Post.

The other source told The Post, “I would be shocked if he didn’t play the Arnold Palmer.”

Palmer himself reportedly has told some close confidants that Woods is definitely playing Bay Hill. Quietly, the people running the tournament are preparing for a larger-than-usual media crush.

Meanwhile, Mark O’Meara, Woods’ longtime friend and neighbor, told Golf Channel yesterday that he “wouldn’t be surprised” to see Woods make his anticipated return at the Tavistock Cup, a made-for-TV inter-club event on March 22-23 at Isleworth, Woods’ home course outside of Orlando.

O’Meara said the two-day exhibition matches might be a “nice way” for Woods to “ease back into the whole situation.”

Tiger's comeback will be a bit tumultuous, and he'll probably have to deal with not only a hostile press by possibly hostile galleries. However, he can shut all that up if he can return to his former golf greatness. We'll see how badly this whole thing has hurt his game.