Tiger takes tiny non-commital step back
He's 'still trying' to be Masters-ready after cameo role in TGL defeat; Stray Shots: Fitz
Tiger Woods takes his first full swing in more than a year in TGL match Tuesday (Adam Glanzman/TGL via Getty Images)
Tiger Woods competed Tuesday night. If you blinked, you missed it.
The first round of the Masters is a mere 15 days away and Woods said he will be at Augusta National. We just don’t know if he will be playing in the tournament.
By all indications, he is putting in the effort to be ready to play. Tuesday night’s TGL match was another — albeit small — step in that direction.
In his first competitive return since last year’s inaugural TGL season, Woods showed up for the final match of the second-season championship final series. He accounted for a total of nine strokes as his Jupiter Links team was overwhelmed by a tsunami of eagles by Los Angeles Golf Club in a 9-2 dusting that lasted only 10 holes in clinching the TGL title.
“We got out ass kicked at the end,” said Woods. “Three eagles in a row and we didn’t respond. I missed a short one at the beginning to get it started and give them momentum and we never got it back.”
After the match, Woods would only commit to being in Augusta, Ga., in three weeks to attend the Champions Dinner and the opening of his short course at the renovated Patch. He still hasn’t decided if he can tee it up in the Masters.
“As I said, I’ve been trying,” Woods said. “Just this body is — it doesn’t recover like it did when it was 24, 25. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying. I’ve been trying for a while. I’ve had a couple bad injuries here over the past years that I’ve had to fight through and it’s taken some time.
“But I keep trying. I want to play. I love the tournament. I’ve loved being there since I was 19 years old. It’s meant a lot to me and my family over the years. I’m going to be there either way with The Loop that’s going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner.”
Pressed further as to how late he might make a decision, Woods said: “I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll be practicing, playing at home this week and keep trying to make progress.”
Woods had not participated in TGL all year but his team made it to the best-of-three championship series. The Los Angeles team of Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala won on Monday night meaning Jupiter Links — which included Max Homa and Tom Kim along with Woods on Tuesday — needed to win twice Tuesday night.
But it never got to a third encounter as the match was clinched after just 10 holes meaning Woods did not even get a chance to play either of his singles holes.
Jupiter Links had jumped to a quick 2-0 lead through five holes. Woods missed putts of 25 and 23 to win holes 1 and 5 and lagged one close from 45 feet on the fourth that set up a win. His 279-yard 3-wood to within 24 feet set up a birdie win on the second hole when Sahith Theegala missed a 4-footer.
But it was all downhill from there as L.A. won five consecutive holes including two double-point hammers and a triple-point hammer on the 10th hole to end the match. L.A. eagled the last three holes.
“It sucked,” Jupiter’s Max Homa said.
After squaring the score at 2-2 after a hammer win on the sixth hole, the match turned when Woods lipped out a par putt from 3 feet, 6 inches to lose the seventh. He flashed some anger as he swiped at his offending ball.
“(Akshay Bhatia) probably would have made that two-footer that I missed,” Woods said of Jupiter’s reserve player who wasn’t available because he is playing in this week’s Hero Indian Open on a sponsor’s obligation. “We had to hold down the fort, and unfortunately we didn’t hold down the fort.”
In all, Tiger hit two drivers, one fairway wood, one wedge off the tee, one long bunker shot, three long putts and the one shorty — missing all four.
In a very limited showing, Woods showed some power, with ball speed of 176 mph (that’s in Scottie Scheffler range) and an old-school stinger shot that traveled 318 yards with 274-yard carry.
“There’s definitely more (power). I’ve never really struggled with ball speed,” Woods said. “Ball direction is a different story. I’ve hit it left and right most of my life, hence my last name is Woods.
“Hey, I’ve always had speed. That’s always been something that I’ve fortunately been gifted with. Even as I’ve gotten older and with the body not quite what it used to be, I can still get it up there.”
In all, Woods was pleased just to step into the arena again as a player.
“It feels good to be back but I would have like to been back in better circumstances,” Woods said. “That’s sports. You put yourself out there and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and you deal with it.”
While he hardly needed to exert himself in only five shots that weren’t putts, Woods wsa pleased with his ball speed and how his body felt after the brief effort.
“Feels fine physically. It was just interesting the shots because usually you have more of a rhythm when you’re actually playing a normal round of golf, hitting shots. Here it feels like I’m getting iced a bit at times,” he said.
“It’s just a different rhythm. It’s like when you play Ryder Cup or Presidents Cups and you play in foursomes. Some matches you just don’t hit a putt for like 10, 11 holes and all of a sudden you’ve got to make a three-footer. That’s kind of what it feels like here.
“I had a couple drives I had to hit and then a couple putts. It was just … for me, it was different because I haven’t really done this. I’ve been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I haven’t done it in a while. It was a lot of fun, though, to be a part of it.”
Before the match, an upbeat Woods was eager to get his competitive juices flowing for the first time in a year.
“I’ve been a cheerleader all these matches and I just wanted to compete,” he said. “I’m going to be rusty. I haven’t played golf in a long time. Thank God I have teammates to pick me up.”
Asked what the significance of his return might mean for his competitive future, Woods was non-commital.
“As far as setting myself up for the future, I think it’s one step at a time,” he said. “Tonight’s a nice step because I haven’t played competitively in a very long time after a very long year of rehabbing.”
Woods, a five-time Masters champion, has not played competitive tournament golf since missing the cut at the 2024 Open Championship.
He had a back procedure later that year meant to alleviate disk impingement but while gearing up for a spring comeback ruptured his Achilles tendon and had surgery, keeping him out for the entire 2025 season. Then he had the disk replacement surgery in October, believed to be his seventh back surgery dating to 2014, for which he has said the recovery has been slow.
Woods, 50, is listed in the Masters field and is not required to do any more but show up or withdraw. If he does not play, there is no alternate list. He has made 26 starts at the Masters dating to his 1995 debut and has made 24 consecutive cuts, a Masters record.
