Tiger Woods is back! Well … sort of. The 15-time major winner will tee it up for his Jupiter Links Golf Club on the final night of the TGL indoor golf league on Tuesday night.
Perhaps it’s a one-off appearance to give Woods a taste of competition and juice TGL’s ratings. Perhaps it’s a foreshadowing of something more, with the Masters set to start in two weeks.
“I’ve been trying to come back. But it just hasn’t worked out that way,” Woods said last week. “I’ve had a bad run of injuries last year. I think it’s been a year and a few days since I blew out my Achilles. And so then I’ve had two back operations. So it’s been a little rough go.”
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Woods hasn’t played a competitive round of golf on the PGA Tour since the 2024 Open Championship some 20 months ago, and hasn’t played in TGL in more than a year. He’s undergone an array of surgeries in his career, most recently on his back in October, that have slowed his return to outdoor golf.
“Disc replacement is not a lot of fun,” Woods added. “The body doesn’t quite heal like it was when I was 24. Doesn’t quite bounce back. So I have good days when I can pretty much do anything, and other days where it’s hard to just to move around.”
With all due respect to the TGL, the golf world’s focus is on the Masters, which begins two weeks from Thursday. Woods, a five-time Masters champion, hasn’t said whether he’s competing at Augusta National yet. The Masters remains the only major in which Woods has even made a cut since 2020.
Outdoor golf will obviously pose far more of a challenge to Woods than TGL, where he only needs to walk a few yards from the tee box and simulator screen to the real-world green on every hole. The hills of Augusta National in particular are likely to pose a challenge to Woods’ repaired back and ACL, should he opt to play.
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In terms of the TGL, Woods is coming in at the last possible moment. Jupiter Links is down one match in the best-of-three championship series against L.A. Golf Club. The Jupiter Links Golf Club team includes Woods, Max Homa and Tom Kim; Woods will take Kevin Kisner’s spot. LAGC’s team includes Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala.
Woods’ return begins at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. If Jupiter Links wins that match, the final winner-take-all match will start at 9 p.m. For golf fans, Woods just made it a must-watch event.
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