Fifteen-time main champion Tiger Woods stated he solely began chipping and placing final week and does not know when he may return to aggressive golf.
Woods, talking to reporters Tuesday on the Hero World Challenge within the Bahamas, stated he is not far alongside in his restoration from surgical procedure to switch a disk in his decrease again that had triggered ache and mobility points.
Woods had his seventh back procedure in New York on Oct. 10.
“It has been gradual,” Woods stated. “Not capable of do a lot on a disk alternative to let it set; cannot actually do a lot. Now, we obtained the OK to begin cranking up just a little bit within the gymnasium, began strengthening and began doing just a little bit extra of the rotational element that I have not been capable of do, simply letting the disk form of set.”
Woods is not enjoying on this week’s event, which he hosts and which advantages his TGR Basis. He additionally will not compete along with his son, Charlie, within the upcoming PNC Championship in Orlando, Florida, from Dec. 18-21.
He additionally will miss the beginning of the TGL indoor golf season, which tees off Dec. 28.
“Sadly, I have been by this rehab course of earlier than,” Woods stated. “It is simply step-by-step. As soon as I get a really feel for training, exploding, enjoying, the restoration course of, then I can assess the place I’ll play and the way a lot I am going to play.”
Woods, who turns 50 on Dec. 30, will be eligible to compete next season on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, during which he could be allowed to make use of a cart.
When Woods was requested if he plans to play in any senior tournaments in 2026, he joked that he would in all probability compete in 25 occasions on each excursions.
“I believe that ought to cowl a lot of the yr, proper?” Woods stated. “No, I am simply wanting ahead to simply [getting] again to enjoying once more. Let me do this, after which I am going to form of work out what the schedule goes to be. I am a methods away from that a part of it and that kind of resolution, that kind of dedication degree.”
Woods missed the whole 2025 tour season after he ruptured his left Achilles tendon whereas ramping up coaching in March.
The 82-time PGA Tour winner had been scheduled to compete within the Genesis Invitational, however withdrew, saying he wasn’t able to play after the demise of his mom, Kultida, on Feb. 4.
Woods final competed in a PGA Tour occasion when he missed the reduce on the Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Membership in Scotland in July 2024. He hasn’t performed 4 rounds in an official event since ending sixtieth within the 2024 Masters.
“I might like to return again to simply enjoying golf once more,” Woods stated. “I have not performed golf in a very long time. It has been a tricky yr. I’ve had plenty of issues occur on and off the golf course that is been robust. And so my ardour [is] to simply play, I have not accomplished that in a very long time.”
Off the course, Woods stays busy as chairman of the PGA Tour’s Future Competitors Committee, which is exploring methods to make the tour’s product higher, because it continues to battle LIV Golf for consideration.
PGA Tour golfer Harris English advised finally month’s RSM Traditional that the 2027 tour schedule won’t begin till after the Tremendous Bowl is performed, and it would embrace fewer occasions in future seasons. New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, a former NFL government, has additionally hinted that dramatic modifications is likely to be coming in current public feedback.
“We’re attempting to provide the followers the perfect product we presumably can, and if we’re capable of give the followers the perfect product we are able to, I believe we are able to make the gamers who’ve fairness within the tour, we can provide them extra of that,” stated Woods, who added the tour was working to implement modifications in 2027. “So, the monetary windfall might be implausible for everybody who’s concerned.”
