With Tiger Woods confirming his absence from next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, Nick Dougherty believes the former World No 1 has to pick the right time to make his return to the sport.
Woods, an eight-time winner at Bay Hill, announced on Friday that he wouldn't return to the event but was making 'great strides' as he continues to recover from on-going back problems and issues with his short-game.
The 14-time major winner hasn't featured on the PGA Tour since withdrawing during the first round of February's Farmers Insurance Open, but remains hopeful of returning in time to feature at Augusta next month.
Speaking during Sky Sports 4's live coverage of the Valspar Championship, Dougherty said “I’m not surprised to be honest (with Woods' withdrawal). We saw the problems with his short game and that’s something that doesn’t amend itself within a month, so the fact that he’s extending it now really doesn’t surprise me.
“It’s disappointing for the world of golf, because we know it’s a great thing when Tiger does turn up, but his power has been waning in the past couple of seasons. When he came back just recently, he wasn’t right.
“We want to see Tiger play, but we don’t want to see him play as badly as he has been. To his credit, he did own up to it and say his game isn’t tournament ready. He doesn’t want to turn up and play golf like that so he has stepped away.
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“To be fair it’s probably something he’s never experienced in his career to this point. He’s felt invincible and his results have been proof of the pudding.
“To see him really baffled with this now is going to be hard for him mentally because he’s not used to feeling that…it’s how a normal golfer feels like.
"Would he want to turn up to the Masters if he knows he’s not going to play well? I think this next comeback is so important.
“There’s only so many times you can walk away, come back, walk away and come back. If he keeps failing when he comes back then there could be some long-term damage. You hope not, but we might even lose him eventually.”
Watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational from March 19 live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of Golf.