New York: Tiger Woods has steadily been ramping up his golfing activities, and on Monday he declared that he would return to competition next month. The 14-time major winner is set to compete at the Hero World Challenge, which will make for his first official event since February’s Dubai Desert Classic.
Woods withdrew from that tournament with back spasms, then underwent spinal fusion surgery in April, the fourth time he’s had a procedure for his back. He was arrested for DUI in May, blaming the incident on multiple pain medications he was taking, and has been putting his game back together in the months since then.
“I am excited to return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge,” Woods said in a statement on his website. “Albany [Bahamas] is the perfect setting and it will be great to join this outstanding field. I want to thank Pawan Munjal and Hero MotoCorp for their continued support of this tournament and my foundation. I would also like to thank the fans for their unwavering support during my injury.”
The Hero World Challenge, which takes place November 30-December 3, is run by a Woods-owned event management company, and it benefits his charitable foundation. After missing the entire 2016 PGA season with back issues, Woods returned to play in the tournament last year, making it just one of two PGA events in which he competed in the 2017 season, along with January’s Farmers Insurance Open.
The Bahamas-based tournament, which Woods has won five times, features an elite field of 18 golfers. Sixteen of this year’s entrants are ranked in the top 24, including Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Day and Rickie Fowler, with Woods, whose world ranking has plunged to 1180, and 27th-ranked Daniel Berger rounding out the field.
“I’d like to thank the committee of one for picking myself and Daniel Berger to play” this year, Woods joked on Twitter. He has used social media this month to share video of his progress, from hitting iron shots to finally being able to swing a driver again.
Woods last won a PGA tournament in 2013, when he notched five victories and finished second in the FedEx Cup standings. Over the 2014 and 2015 seasons, he played in just 18 events, with no wins and seven missed cuts. His last major triumph was at the 2008 US Open.
At September’s Presidents Cup, where Woods served as a captain’s assistant, he told reporters, “I don’t know what my future holds for me.” Woods noted that, at the time, he was limited to “hitting 60-yard shots.”
“There were times when . . . I didn’t know if I was going to be able to be here because I couldn’t ride in a cart,” Woods said then. “The bouncing just hurt too much. Driving a car still hurt. So that’s all gone now, which is fantastic. And yeah, there were some intrepid times — not just for this golf tournament, but for life going forward.”
Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, said two weeks ago that his client had been given clearance to resume all golfing activities by the doctor who performed his back surgery. “He can do as much as he needs to do,” Steinberg said.
“Tiger is going to take this very, very slowly. This is good, but he plans to do it the right way.”
- The Washington Post
