Tiger Woods’ latest comeback

Is this Tiger’s final comeback, or will it be the penultimate one? It is impossible to know with an athlete who has appeared to be finished on so many occasions, but risen again to defy the odds. The winner of 15 majors returns to competition Thursday in the tournament he organizes, the Hero World Challenge in Albany (Bahamas), after another visit to the operating room and seven months of hiatus. Woods withdrew from the Masters at Augusta during the third round and was last in the standings among those who had made the cut, his 23rd in a row in his backyard. He has limped through the opening rounds having aggravated his plantar fasciitis and could barely stand. Ten days later, he underwent surgery on his right ankle, the most recent page in a medical file that includes a dozen operations on his knees and back and a traffic accident in February 2021 that almost cost him his right leg. Today, 236 days after he withdrew at Augusta, Woods will once again stand on the first tee. In a month’s time, on December 30, he will turn 48.

“I love competing, I love playing. I miss being out here with the guys. But what drives me is that I love to compete. There will come a point in time, I haven’t come around to it fully yet, that I won’t be able to win again. When that day comes, I’ll walk,” Woods said. Since that day when he lost control of his vehicle at high speed, he has barely delivered any flashes of his brilliance. In 2022 he was 47th at the Masters, withdrew from the PGA Championship and missed the cut at the 150th British Open at St. Andrews. This year he placed 45th at the Genesis Invitational and raised the white flag at the Masters. Not even Woods is able to anticipate which version of himself he is right now. “My game feels rusty; I haven’t played in a while,” Woods said at a press conference ahead of the tournament. “I had my subtalar fused. I’m excited to compete and play, and I’m just as curious as all of you are to see what happens because I haven’t done it in a while. I don’t have any of the pain that I had at Augusta or pre-that in my ankle. Well, other parts are taking the brunt of the load, so I’m a little more sore in other areas, but the ankle’s good. So that surgery was a success.”

That surgery has provided Woods with a glimmer of hope. His great ailment was the simplest thing in the game: being able to walk the course for 18 holes without pain. Any session ended in long ice baths. Today the toll appears less painful and he recently tested himself by caddying for his 14-year-old son, Charlie, for three days at a junior tournament. That convinced him to stage another comeback and now he is looking to the medium term: in two weeks’ time he and Charlie will play in the PNC Championship, a family pairs event. “I think that best scenario would be maybe a tournament a month,” Woods said. That would indicate playing the Genesis in February, the Players in March... and of course, the Masters in April, where he won his 15th major in 2019, to leave him three shy of Jack Nicklaus’ 18. Woods may no longer be aiming to match the Golden Bear, but he could break his tie with Sam Snead as the players with the most wins, 82 each, on the American circuit.

Woods is currently ranked 1,328 in the world. His future is so uncertain that even Joe LaCava, his caddie for 12 years, left to carry Patrick Cantlay’s bag. In the Bahamas, he will be accompanied by Rob McNamara, and the casting to be his partner next year remains open. Meanwhile, Woods continues as the PGA Tour’s standard bearer in the conflict against the breakaway Saudi LIV League, and the virtual competition he organizes has also been postponed until 2025. In the meantime, what can be expected of Woods in his latest comeback?

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