Tiger still in play behind the scenes
While physically unable to compete yet, Woods' word carries a lot of weight
Tiger Woods was present for his foundation’s Hero World Challenge (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Tiger Woods remains a player, even if he is not playing.
He’s a major player in his role as a PGA Tour Policy Board member, reigning legend whose opinion matters and someone who turned down the U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy.
As far as not playing, that’s due to yet another back surgery — his sixth! — which occurred on Sept. 13. That kept him from competing in this week’s Hero World Challenge, the event in the Bahamas that benefits his foundation.
Woods said he is not “tournament sharp” but he appeared to be much further away than that from being able to play in a tournament. Woods moved around cautiously, hit no shots in a charity chipping contest he oversaw and generally looked like someone whose recovery is going to take some more time. That puts in question his participation in several events in early 2025.
Here is a summary of where Tiger stands on several issues:
His Health
Woods is less than three months removed from a microdecompression surgery meant to alleviate nerve impingement in his lower back. A year ago at the Hero, Woods finished 18th among 20 players and expressed optimism about possibly playing once a month in 2024. He ended up playing 11 official rounds, making the cut in only the Masters.
“I didn’t think my back was going to go like it did this year,” Woods said. “It was quite painful throughout the end of the year and hence I had another procedure done to it to alleviate the pain I had going down my leg. So whether my commitment going forward is once a month … yeah, I could say that all over again, but I truly don’t know.
“I’m just trying to rehab and still get stronger and better and feel better, really give myself the best chance I can going into next year. This year was kind of — I had to toss it away and I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be and I didn’t play as much as I needed to going into the major championships and I didn’t play well at them.
“Hopefully next year will be better, I’ll be physically stronger and better. I know the procedure helped and hopefully that I can then build upon that.”
Woods has been plagued by numerous physical setbacks over the past decade. He’s had four microdiscectomies (2014, twice in 2015 and again in 2020); the major spinal fusion surgery (2017) which led to a two-year run of excellence that saw him win a fifth Masters; multiple procedures in the aftermath of his 2021 car crash that crushed his lower leg; and then the latest back surgery on Sept. 13.
Although similar to a microdiscectomy, the decompression is not deemed quite as problematic although the recovery time is eight to 12 weeks. Woods had not ramped up any kind of golf practice.
“The pain that was going down my leg and the spasms were tough through the end of the year, so that’s been alleviated,” Woods said. “I still don’t quite walk right, but that’s kind of an issue with my ankle.”
He has not made a decision on the Dec. 21-22 PNC Championship, a 36-hole exhibition he would play with his son, Charlie, and where he could use a golf cart. Afterward, Woods was asked about his readiness for the TGL simulation golf league he is part of and scheduled compete in on Jan. 14. He expressed confidence he would participate by then.
“I am disappointed,” Woods said in reference to missing his own event this week. “I’m not physically ready yet to compete at this level. The times I have come back here, I was ready to start competing and playing again. Unfortunately, not this time. I still need to keep training to give myself the best chance going into next year and the events ahead.”
Ryder Cup payments
Woods was among those who way back in 1999 wondered where all the money was going that the PGA of America raked in for the Ryder Cup. Although there were conflicting reports as to whether the players actually wanted to be paid or to have funds directed to charity, the issue was eventually put to rest with a system that sees all the participants getting money to direct to their own causes.
But a report in The Telegraph last month said the PGA of America is considering giving each American player $400,000 without regard to charity. The story has not been refuted by the organization which oversees the event in the U.S., letting a hot-button topic simmer.
“We didn’t want to get paid; we wanted to give more money to charity,’’ Woods said of the 25-year-old debate. “The media turned it around against us and said we want to get paid. No, the Ryder Cup makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities?
“What’s wrong with each player, 12 players, getting a million dollars and doling it out to any amazing charities that they’re involved in, that they can help out in their hometowns, all the different junior golf associations or endeavors that the members are involved in.
“We allocate funds to help build our sport or help things that we believe in back home because it’s so hard to get onto that team. There are only 12 guys.”
There’s been considerable pushback on the idea of paying players for the Ryder Cup, especially in light of all the money talk in the game and the fact that the European side is not in favor of getting paid and will not.
“I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup,” Rory McIlroy said three weeks ago in Dubai, ahead of his victory at the DP World Tour Championship. “I have come a long way in this, especially with the Olympics, but the two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder Cup and Olympics partly because of the purity of no money being involved.
“It was a discussion that was happening at the last Ryder Cup in Rome. I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup does create a lot of revenue. It’s one of the top five biggest sporting events in the world so I get the argument that the talent could be getting paid.
“The Ryder Cup is so much more than that, especially to the Europeans and this tour. We’ve all had a conversation about it with (European captain) Luke (Donald) because we obviously heard (about the possible U.S. plans) and the common consensus is that the $5 million paid to the team would be better spent on the DP World Tour to support other events and even to support the Challenge Tour.
“For us, it would give it a different feel. What we have done a very good job of is being a very cohesive group over the last decade and we wouldn’t want anything to change that.”
Woods said he understood the European side.
“That’s fine, that’s their right to say that,” said Woods, who turned down the 2025 Ryder Cup captaincy. “I just think that the event is so big that I think that we can give so much money to different charities, and I’ve said that since ’99 when we had the Brookline negotiations. If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that’s their decision to do that, that’s their team. I know when it’s on European soil that it subsidizes most of their tour, so it is a big event for the European tour and if they want to pay to play in it, so be it.”
PGA Tour/PIF negotiations
Woods is frustrated by the pace of negotiations between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — even though there is conjecture that he might be part of the holdup. Woods didn’t address the latter part.
The 15-time major champion is a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board as well as its “transactions committee” which negotiates with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that backs LIV Golf. It is now nearly a year since the deadline passed for a deal to be completed.
“I think all of us who have been a part of this process would have thought it would have happened quicker than this,” Woods said. “Even if it did, we’re still at the regulations of the DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice). … Even if we had gotten a deal done by now, it’s still in the DOJ’s hands. But we wish we would have had something more concrete and further along than we are right now.”
As for the discussions themselves, Woods said: “Things are very fluid, we’re still working through it, it’s happening daily. From a Policy Board standpoint or from an (PGA Tour) Enterprise standpoint, things are moving and they’re constructive. But yes, definitely moving.”
In the aftermath of the June 6, 2023 “framework agreement” that was done in secret but led to the current negotiations, Woods was added to the PGA Tour Policy Board as a sixth player director as the players were to be given veto power over any deal struck with the PIF.
Currently, LIV players are not allowed to play in PGA Tour events; they must pay fines and serve suspensions to compete in DP World Tour events.
“We’re moving on the fly to try and give everyone the best product we possibly can and give the game peace that it needs,” Woods continued. “This has been a very difficult time in the game of golf. I think that a lot of it has been distractions on the beauty of the game of golf and obviously we’re trying to unify that and give the fans the best experience we know we can give them.”
As for Woods’ confidence in a deal, he said: “I think something will get done. In what form or shape, I don’t know yet.”
Hero chairman Pawan Munjal wants a deal to be struck (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Hero extends World Challenge deal
At the same news conference, Dr. Pawan Munjal, the executive chairman of Hero MotoCorp, announced an extension of the company’s title sponsorship of the Hero World Challenge through 2030.
The India-based company also sponsors the Hero Dubai Classic, the Hero Indian Open for both women and men and is the umbrella sponsor of a women’s tour in India.
Hero dropped Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri in the aftermath of his signing with LIV Golf in 2022, but Munjal — an avid golfer and businessman — attended a LIV Golf event last year (and played in the pro-am with Phil Mickelson) soon after the framework agreement was announced, with discussions about bringing a LIV event to India. And like many sponsors, he is keen to see a deal get done.
“Very simply put, the game is not benefiting, the players are not benefiting. Maybe some (players) on tour,” Munjal said in absence of a deal. “What has to happen is everyone gets back together and the game moves on, the players move on, the sponsors move on. There is confusion for the sponsors as well right now, what to do, where to go, how to look at the future. The future is uncertain, which is not a good thing.
“The majority of the players are not benefiting from all of this confusion. We need to move on. We need to have certainty. We need to have a clear future plan which everyone knows and then moves along that path going forward. Confusion is no good for anybody.”