It makes the most sense for Tiger Woods to return in February 2017

Big Cat is out for the season which means the search for his return could extend into next year

I've been asked a thousand times when Tiger Woods is coming back. The real answer is that I don't know. Nobody does. In the wake of his agent announcing Woods would not play again in the 2015-16 season, the answer is more up in the air than ever.

"Will not play in the 2015-16 season and will continue to rehab and work hard to then assess when he starts play for the 2016-17 season," his agent Mark Steinberg wrote to Golf Channel.

That seems ambiguous and non-committal at best. And the worst case scenario is that Woods actually never returns because his rehab went badly, and he doesn't think he can get it done at the highest level ever again.

So I can't tell you when Woods will be back, but I can tell you when it makes the most sense for Big Cat to return to professional golf: the 2017 Genesis Open.

Woods' foundation will help host the tournament (formerly known as the Northern Trust Open) starting next season, and Tiger made his PGA Tour debut in 1992 at the course but hasn't played it in the last two decades.

"I'd be seriously upset if I went my whole career and never won this tournament," Woods said in 2006. "It's one of the oldest events on our tour. It's played every year on one of our best courses. It always attracts a strong field. These are exactly the tournaments you want to win."

In that same New York Times article, Woods insinuate that outside forces would have to converge to get him to play The Riv again.

Before the tour stop at Torrey Pines, Woods was asked what it would take for him to play Riviera again. "I don't know," he said. "We'll just see."

Now they have as the Woods Foundation will help host and Woods has committed to play if he's able.

"I'm committed to playing in my Foundation's events, and it will be exciting to return to Riviera," Woods said earlier this year.

This immediately becomes the most important tournament on the PGA Tour schedule of the first few months of 2017 for Woods because of how much his foundation means to him.

If you don't believe we will see Woods in the fall of 2016 -- and I don't -- then Riviera in mid February is your best bet.