GOLF NEWS:JACK NICKLAUS said he would not be surprised if Tiger Woods ended his seclusion and decided to play the US Masters at Augusta National next month.

“I’ve been very non-committal because it’s none of my business,” Nicklaus said on Wednesday following his pro-am round at this week’s Honda Classic in Florida. “But playing golf, my guess as a golfer, he’s going to probably try to (play the Masters).

“It would surprise me if he didn’t.”

The first major of the season starts on April 8th.

Woods is taking an indefinite break from the sport after admitting in December that he had cheated on his wife and has given no timetable for his return to the game.

However, the world number one is reportedly practicing and working out at his home in Florida.

The 34-year-old American, who has won 14 majors, has already missed two tournaments he routinely plays early in the season, the San Diego Open at Torrey Pines and the WGC-Match Play Championship in Arizona.

The world number one is chasing Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. Woods has won the Masters at Augusta four times.

Woods’s televised apology for infidelity on February 19th failed to reverse his plummeting stature with the American public, according to a survey by a unit of Omnicom Group Inc.

Davie Brown Entertainment found that the 34-year-old golfer’s appeal as a corporate spokesman reached a new low after national polling in the week ended March 2nd.

Once ranked sixth as a celebrity endorser by the firm’s Davie Brown Index, he now ranks 147th.