LOS ANGELES: Tiger Woods felt “good enough” to play at the Riviera, his first tournament with a cut and without a cart since the British Open last July. He is already looking towards the Masters. And yes, he thinks he can win.
“If I don’t think I can beat these guys, I don’t put myself out here,” Woods said Tuesday before the Genesis Invitational.
He knows all too well that he hasn’t won since October 2019, and at 47 and with more surgeries than major titles (15), time is running out. He knows. He is not at all ready to accept it.
He wonders at how long Tom Brady has lived. He remembers when John Elway retired from the Denver Broncos because his body could no longer recover the way it once had. Golf is no longer a contact sport, rather it has become a youth sport. Only two of the top 10 players in golf are in their 30s. The oldest is Rory McIlroy, 33.
Woods can play. The question is can he compete, can he win. He holds 82 career PGA Tour titles, a record he shares with Sam Snead, who was 67 when he made the cut at the PGA Championship.
Part of Woods was angered by the fact that he was observed to make the cut at the Masters last year, his first competition since a car crash outside Los Angeles in February 2021 broke bones in his right foot and ankle.
“I’m out there to get a W, okay? So I don’t think it’s a big deal to make the cut,” Woods said. “If I entered the event, it was always to get a W. There will come a time when my body won’t allow me to do this, and it will probably happen sooner rather than later. But my leading the way around that change and being an ambassador and just trying to be with people here, no, it’s not in my DNA.
He took on that ambassadorial role last year as tournament host at the Genesis Invitational. He has been leading private player meetings toward the creation of a new PGA Tour model of exclusive tournaments as a response to Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
His announcement on Friday that he was playing led to a scramble for media credentials. About two dozen photographers stood in the back of the press room at the Riviera Clubhouse waiting for her to enter the news conference.
Justin Rose watched in December as Woods played golf with his son at the PNC Championship. Woods has been saying that he can hit all shots, which makes it difficult for him to walk.
“In terms of the important part of can you hit a golf ball, can you get a ball in the hole, it all seemed really in order,” Rose said. “But we know that’s definitely not the thing he struggles with, right? It’s obviously the physical side of putting together four rounds of golf. (It’s) great to see him on the field and here A really good sign to feel ready and able to move out of.
Woods had planned to play in his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas the first week of December, but as he ramped up his practice, he developed plantar fasciitis, which prevented him from walking. He said he still struggles with plantar fasciitis, only that it has become manageable. It is the ankle that gives him trouble.
He prepared for Rivera — and the Masters, and whatever might follow — with more graduated practice of hitting golf balls, walking until he was exhausted, and then walking a little more until he was through 18 holes. I did not reach
what to expect? Woods doesn’t even know.
Expectations have run high during his incredible career. Once in 2001 he went two whole months without a win, and was on the cover of a golf magazine, writing “What’s wrong with Tiger?” He won his next three starts, including the Masters.
Now the point is whether he is joking about winning.
Woods is no longer inspired by critics, a product of age and maturity, with a dose of reality. He is aware that his last win was the Zozo Championship in Japan in 2019, six months after winning the Masters.
Before his back fusion surgery in 2017, when it was a struggle just to walk, Woods had reason to wonder if he would ever play again. He thinks he can beat McIlroy and Scotty Scheffler, the new No. 1 in golf. But there is more gratitude than just playing.
“Those previous operations were tough,” he said. “It proved to me more than anything I could still do. … Ultimately, it’s within me and whether I believe I can do it or not. It’s not an outside motivating factor.”
For the rest of the year, Woods knows only that it will be a limited schedule of majors and maybe little else. This is a good forecast. He was taking a drive around the Los Angeles Country Club on Monday to tour the North Course ahead of the US Open.
The end is coming sooner rather than later, but it is not yet.