Woods' return 'not as fast as I’d like'

Tiger faces questions about competitive timetable, Ryder Cup and PGA Tour's future

Tiger Woods faced a lot of questions with few real answers at Hero presser. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

With Tiger Woods, there always seems to be a lot of ground to cover in a short window. For someone who’s influence is so important in the game, his availability is painfully minimal.

For the first time in nine months, Woods spoke in front of the media on Tuesday as host of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

Since he last sat for a news conference at a TGL event in early March, Woods ruptured his Achilles and had surgery that led him to miss all for major championships, saw Brian Rolapp named PGA Tour CEO, watched a U.S. Ryder Cup team he might have captained get waxed for two days before staging a big comeback in defeat and had another surgical back procedure.

Phew!

The most recent surgery is why Woods is not playing in the 20-player tournament this week at Albany in the Bahamas nor in the upcoming PNC Championship in Florida with his teenage son, Charlie.

It’s also why Tiger was vague in his comments regarding any timetable for a possible competitive return sometime in 2026.

“It’s not as fast as I’d like it to be,” Woods said of his rehab from Oct. 10 disk replacement surgery. “It was a good thing to do, something I needed to have happen and it just takes time and dedication to the rehab process.”

Woods knows all about it. The procedure was the seventh on his back alone — the third since the possibility career-ending spinal fusion surgery in 2017 that led to an amazing comeback including a 2019 Masters victory.

This time, Woods was again cautious about committing to any timeline. He did say he won’t tee it up later this month with his son at the PNC Championship, an event they’ve played together every year since 2020. And he won’t play in the early TGL matches, either, saying perhaps by the end — Feb. 2, March 1, March 3? — he can participate in the simulation golf league he helped launch last season with Rory McIlroy.

That, of course, puts the Genesis Invitational — a tournament he plays host to at Riviera — in doubt. It also will leave some speculation about him returning for the Masters.

Woods, who turns 50 on Dec. 30, would not even commit to playing PGA Tour Champions golf, even though the 54-hole, golf-cart setup is perfect for him to work out the kinks in his game.

“I’m just looking forward to … just let me get back to playing again, let me do that and then I’ll kind of figure out what the schedule is going to be,” he said. “I’m a ways away from that part of it and that type of decision, that type of commitment level. Unfortunately, I’ve been through this rehab process before, it’s just step by step.

“Once I get a feel for practicing, exploding, playing, the recovery process, then I can assess where I’m going to play and how much I’ll play.

“I just got cleared last week to chip and putt so it’s good. It’s been six weeks last Friday. It’s been slow. Not able to do much on a disk replacement to let it set. Can’t really do much. Now we got the okay to start cranking up a little bit in the gym, started strengthening and started doing a little bit more of the rotational component that I haven’t been able to do. Just letting the disk kind of set.”

Woods was asked a smattering of questions in the 30-minute session in advance of the Hero World Challenge that beings Thursday with Scottie Scheffler as the defending champion.

Tiger gave a rather cryptic answer to a question about his interest in the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy: “I haven’t been asked.” When a follow-up question was presented, he answered the same way.

Woods was the clear choice of the PGA of America in 2024, only to have him turn it down after months of putting off the decision. That caused the PGA to shift to Keegan Bradley, who had never been an assistant and hadn’t played in the Ryder Cup in 10 years.

Bradley, 39, is still taking the Ryder Cup loss hard, saying that it “haunts” him and taking full blame for the defeat, an occurrence that goes far beyond what he did or did not do.

But in the aftermath, it was assumed that Woods would at least be approached again to lead the U.S. team in Ireland at Adare Manor. If he hasn’t been, that is surprising. Typically the PGA of America would make its decision in the spring.

Woods is also part of a “future competitions committee” set up by Rolapp which has met three times and is expected to lead the effort to make considerable changes in the PGA Tour schedule as soon as 2027. Rolapp’s buzzword is “scarcity” which could lead to a more compacted schedule.

The 15-time major champion doesn’t know when he’ll play next but he’s been busy trying to figure out where everyone else will as soon as 2027.

“We’re trying to give the fans the best product we possibly can, and if we’re able to give the fans the best product we can, I think we can make the players who have equity in the tour, we can give them more of that,” Woods said. “So the financial windfall could be fantastic for everyone who’s involved.

“We’ve torn down and looked at so many different models. It’s been a lot. We’ve talked to title sponsors, we talked to CMOs, we talked to tournament directors, we talked to media partners, we’ve talked to a lot of different people and taken a lot in of what they would like to see. Then it’s up to us at the committee to try to put it all together and try to make it work and keep the players informed to what possibly could happen.”

As for his own game, Woods has not played an official tournament since the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he missed the cut. He and Charlie did finish playoff runner-up in the PNC Championship last December.

The only golf Woods played in 2025 was the TGL indoor tech league. He was scheduled to play the Genesis Invitational but withdrew after the death of his mother, Kultida, in early February. Then, when apparently ramping up to try and get ready for the Masters, he suffered the Achilles injury that knocked him out for the golf season.

Later, as he attempted to get back to playing again, his back flared up again.

“It just regressed,” Woods said of his back. “I had a procedure last year in September to buy me a little bit of time. Blew out my Achilles. As I was trying to come back, my back was feeling wonky. Did an MRI and it didn’t look very good.”

The disk replacement is expected to give him some relief and the recovery time is estimated to be three months, which puts him into January before he could really begin ramping up at the earliest.

Only then can the speculation as to any return really begin.