Tiger Woods making a slow recovery from back surgery

Tiger Woods said he is "coming along" from the back surgery that was necessary because he could not make a golf swing. But he still has not been able to swing since the operation, so he has no idea when he will return to tournament golf.

Woods made those comments in a long and generally upbeat post on his website, tigerwoods.com. In his blog, he mused on the Masters (congratulating Bubba Watson), fan mail ("It's been great"), his girlfriend Lindsey Vonn (she is farther along in her rehab from knee surgery than he is) and putting contests with his 5-year-old son Charlie (Tiger does not let the youngster win).

As for the most pressing question, on when he will be able to play again, he wrote, "As I've said several times, I hope to be back sometime this summer, but I don't know when."

Woods had a microdiscectomy March 31. "I made the decision to have surgery because physically, I just couldn't make a golf swing. That pretty much sums it up," he wrote, adding that some people require three months to recover, others more. He is walking, cycling and swimming.

"I haven't used a sand wedge yet," he wrote. "I haven't really rotated yet."

Although he did not say so specifically, that would make him very unlikely to play the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, North Carolina, six weeks from now.

"Not being able to play in the Masters for the first time wasn't as hard for me as you might think," he said. "I've missed major championships before."

He said he still is sore from the incision and that he has spoken extensively with Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who has come back from the same surgery.

Woods added that he has spent "a ton" of time with his daughter Sam and son Charlie, helping the best he can with their interest in sports. On a vacation in the Bahamas, the latter "almost beat me," in putting, Woods said. "Almost" was the pivotal word. "If Sam and Charlie beat me, they're going to earn it," he wrote. "That's how Pop was with me and I think that's how it should be."