Tiger out, this time ruptured Achilles
Latest setback threatens another lost major season; Compromise to lift all boats?
Is TGL simulator golf all we got to see of Tiger Woods in 2025 after another injury? (Courtesy TGL)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Tiger Woods is injured and out all over again.
In what has become a familiar refrain, Woods announced another significant injury and surgery on Tuesday that seems likely to scuttle yet another major championship season.
Woods, who has yet to compete in an official tournament since missing the cut at last summer’s Open Championship at Royal Troon, announced via social media that he suffered a torn Achilles tendon as he tried to prepare to play the Masters in April.
“As I began to ramp up my own training and practice at home, I felt a sharp pain in my left Achilles, which was deemed to be ruptured,” Woods wrote.
“This morning, Dr. Charlton Stucken of Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida performed a minimally-invasive Achilles tendon repair for a ruptured tendon. … I am back home now and plan to focus on my recovery and rehab, thank you all for the support.”
His note included a comment from Dr. Stucken: “The surgery went smoothly, and we expect a full recovery.”
The injury is yet another setback in a long list of injuries that have piling up from Woods dating back to 2002, when he had surgery on his left knee, and again in 2008, when he won the U.S. Open on a stress-fractured left leg and a torn ACL in the same knee. He’s undergone six back surgeries since 2014 — the most recent last September — as well as multiple surgical repairs to his lower right leg that suffered major damage in a car crash in Los Angeles in 2021.
He’s missed 23 majors due to injury since 2008 and withdrawn in the middle of two others.
Woods, 49, had already declined to play in this week’s Players Championship — his final year of eligibility based on his 2019 Masters victory — as he cited the lingering effects from the death of his mother, Kultida, on Feb. 4 that prompted him to withdraw before the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.
Woods last played the Players six years ago when he tied for 30th just a few weeks prior to his 2019 Masters victory, earning a five-year exemption to Sawgrass that he never once utilized. Woods’ exemption was extended a year due to the tournament not being played in 2020.
Following a missed cut in July at the Open, Woods returned to the exhibition PNC Championship with his son in December, walking 54 holes including the pro-am and generally looking pretty good considering his various physical setbacks. He’s played in a handful of TGL events this winter in the simulation golf league he helped found with Rory McIlroy.
He originally planned to play the Genesis Invitational last month that was moved to Torrey Pines due to the Los Angeles wildfires last month but withdrew on Monday of tournament week on the heels of his mother’s death two weeks before.
Last Tuesday following his TGL match, Woods hinted that it was unlikely he’d play until the Masters.
“This is the third time I’ve touched a club since my mom passed, so I haven’t really gotten into it,” he said. “My heart is really not into practicing right now. I’ve had so many other things to do with the tour and trying to do other things.
“Once I start probably feeling a little bit better and start getting into it, I’ll start looking at the schedule.”
The Masters, where Woods would be trying to extend his record streak of made cuts, is almost definitely off the table. Woods is also qualified as a past champion for the PGA Championship, which this year will be played at Quail Hollow in May. His five-year exemption from his 2019 Masters victory has run out at the U.S. Open, which he won three times. Last year, Woods received a special invite from the USGA to play at Pinehurst. This year marks the 25th anniversary of his 15-stroke victory in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
While there’s no timetable as yet for Woods’ return, as a past champion he is eligible to play the British Open until age 60. It will be played this July at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
In September, Woods underwent microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement in the lower back.
“The surgery went smoothly, and I’m hopeful this will help alleviate the back spasms and pain I was experiencing throughout most of the 2024 season,” Woods said. “I look forward to tackling this rehab and preparing myself to get back to normal life activities, including golf.”
That rehab schedule seems likely to extend another year.
Koepka, DeChambeau, Scheffler and McIlroy got together for the Showdown last fall (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
A compromise deal to lift all boats?
The reunification negotiations seem to have reached a relative impasse.
LIV Golf doesn’t want to give up being LIV. The PGA Tour wants the best talent on the PGA Tour. The two sides need to accept those parameters and work out a legitimate compromise.
It shouldn’t be this hard. Not being in the room where it happens makes it seem even more simple.
Here’s another modest proposal.
The best-case scenario may be a cross-pollination access plan where the deep-pocketed Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia can pay for a seat at the table as well as a more amenable working relationship with the PGA and DP World Tours.
It starts with stipulating that any players who sign with LIV forfeit membership privileges and status on the PGA and/or DP World Tours, meaning no card, equity interest, pension, FedEx Cup playoffs, etc. That’s what they give up for accepting a guaranteed contract to play a mandatory 14-event schedule elsewhere.
However, instead of suspension of eligibility to compete in events on their original tours, they could be eligible for limited “special exemptions” on both the PGA and DP World Tours, offering LIV’s best players access to precious OWGR points in those events while letting golf fans see the most desirable players competing together. Tournaments would still have their usual sponsor exemptions, but these LIV-designated spots would be different.
On PGA Tour and DP World Tour: LIV players would be eligible for 8 “special exemption” starts on each — a maximum of 4 “special exemption” spots per tournament on PGA Tour and maybe a few more on DPWT if it chooses. Signature events on the PGA Tour would count as 2 exemption starts as would Rolex Series events on the DP World Tour. For example, if Bryson DeChambeau competed in 3 signature events, he could compete in 2 additional regular PGA Tour events; he could also be eligible for 8 “special exemptions” on the DP World Tour (i.e. 2 Rolex plus 4 regular).
The Players Championship would not be available for or count toward “special exemptions.” Past champions would be eligible for the Players until age 55, but that would not count against “special exemption” limits. The Players could also invite OWGR top-100 players and recent major winners (previous 5 years) regardless of tour as qualifiers and not count as exemption.
On LIV Golf: it would allow one wild-card team each event comprised of 4 guest players from the PGA/DP World Tours. PGA and DPWT players would be allowed 1 conflicting event release during the FedEx Cup or Race to Dubai seasons to compete as part of a wild-card team in LIV events. The top-performing 1 or 2 guest teams would be eligible to compete in the season-ending LIV Golf Team Championship.
Other compromise concessions: LIV Golf would invest $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises and get one seat on the board as well as production assistance from PGA Tour Studios. It would invest another €1.5 billion in the European Tour Group and get one seat on its board. PGATE and ETG would each get one reciprocal representative on LIV’s governing board. LIV would work with PGA and DP World Tours to build a schedule that tries not to conflict with the most prominent events on the legacy tours.
International team events: LIV golfers would be eligible for Ryder and Presidents Cup consideration if they meet criteria participating as “special exemption” players in PGA Tour and DP World Tour events.
Additional cooperative opportunities: Eventually the tours could establish a sort of “Champions League” with one event on every continent designated a “world-sanctioned” tournament that would include players from PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf and the primary local/regional tours. As an example:
Australian/New Zealand Open: In December featuring 30 PGA, 30 DP World, 20 LIV, 30 Australian PGA, 10 TBD by host organizing association;
South African Open: In December featuring 30 PGA, 30 DP World, 20 LIV, 30 Sunshine Tour, 10 TBD by host organizing association;
Middle East Open: In January featuring 30 PGA, 30 DP World, 30 LIV, 30 TBD by host organizing association;
Americas Open: In February featuring 30 PGA, 30 DP World, 20 LIV, 10 Canadian, 10 Central American; 10 South American; 10 TBD by host organizing association;
Asian Open: In April featuring 20 PGA, 20 DP World, 20 LIV, 20 Asian, 15 Japan, 15 Korean, 10 TBD by host organizing association;
European Open: In June featuring 30 PGA, 60 DP World, 20 LIV, 10 TBD by host organizing association.
A reasonable compromise like this could lift all boats.
From the outside, this seems like the best way to get the principal characters everyone wants to see together more often while also creating a more compelling reason for anyone who enjoys LIV to watch it.
Jon Rahm could carve out a non-LIV schedule that lets him play, for instance, the American Express and Torrey Pines as well signature stops at Riviera, Quail Hollow and Memorial. He could also potentially play in Dubai, Spain, Andalucía and Wentworth to satisfy Ryder Cup eligibility. While the couple handfuls of marquee and marketable LIV guys help invigorate the bigger stages, LIV’s rank-and-file guys like Charles Howell III and Harold Varner could flesh out regular event fields where they once had success while young guns like Tom McKibbon and David Puig could test themselves on select tour stages.
On the other hand, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose could form a team to challenge the LIV franchises somewhere. Or Adam Scott, Jason Day, Min Woo Lee and Cameron Davis could put together an Aussie team of tour players to give the Adelaide fans something else to root for (or against) other than Cam Smith’s Rippers.
The possibilities are tantalizing if the two sides would just drop their egos and demands and work together for a simple but sensible solution to live independently but together.
Perhaps deserved Karma for rubbing elbows and kissing the ring of the fat orange turd Trump! Tiger woods is a hugely influential voice for moral and ethical good, but has turned his back and has chosen instead to play regular golf with a treasonous , serial adulterer, just for a start. Karma Tiger, Karma TW!
Leave it exactly as it is. What, the LIV guys make their beds and now they get to sleep around with whoever they want? Bullsh*t. Let me tell my wife about this new concept. How many times do you hear a caddy tell their player “commit to the shot”. Hey, how about commit to your own damn tour. Olly olly oxen free isn’t for pros, it’s a children’s game. The majors are the four most important tournaments, and if LIV players are invited or qualify for those, fine. There’s maybe only six LIV guys most golf fans want to see compete anyway, and it’s not at The Waste Management carnival. Look at LIV’s TV ratings or lack thereof. I mean, it was shown on a network I’d never heard of between reruns of How I Met Your Mother or something. Yeah, let’s jump right on that. Give Ryder Cup captains the right to chose whoever they want for their team with their allotted picks, be it LIV guys, an amateur, or whoever. The Ryder Cup isn’t one tour vs. another, it’s Europe vs. USA, let captains use their picks however they see fit.