Only one man in golf could steal some of the attention from the twin sports supernovas of the WM Phoenix Open and the Super Bowl in the same city on the same weekend.
Tiger Woods is back.
Woods announced Friday via Twitter that he will play the Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles this week. It will be his first PGA Tour start in seven months, though he did appear in two exhibitions in December. He competed in “The Match” with Rory McIlroy against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, and he teamed with his son, Charlie, in the PNC Championship.
Woods, 47, has struggled with his health since surgery to repair a right leg that was mangled in a single-car rollover crash two years ago in California. He made three starts in 2022, finishing 47th at the Masters before he withdrew after three rounds of the PGA and then missed the cut in the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews.
The return to competition at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, represents a homecoming of sorts for Woods, who was born and raised in nearby Cypress, California. The Genesis, at which Woods serves as tournament host, benefits his TGR Foundation. Plus, he says that Riviera, a 1926 design by George Thomas and William Bell and celebrated by golf-architecture followers, is one of his favorite courses.
“I absolutely love that golf course, absolutely love it,” he told the PGA Tour. “I’ve played there since I was a little boy. Every hole, right down those eucalyptus trees, you can see it. I just haven’t won there.”
Woods has won just about everywhere else, though, despite having been shut out since late 2019 as he struggles with more health issues in the twilight of arguably golf’s greatest career. The former world No. 1 tumbled to No. 1,283 in last week’s Official World Golf Ranking. He remains tied with the late Sam Snead for the most victories on tour, at 82, and remains three major titles short of Jack Nicklaus’ record 18.
With its select “invitational” status, the Genesis will feature a limited field of 120 players and be one of the PGA Tour’s new “designated” events, offering a $20 million purse. Should Woods make the cut and qualify for the weekend, he would walk 72 holes for the first time in 10 months, since the Masters in April. He was allowed to ride in a cart, which is not allowed by the PGA Tour, during the two exhibitions in December.
Will Woods make another start after Riviera in preparation for the Masters, which he has won five times? Forget about next week’s Honda, despite its location near his adopted hometown of Jupiter, Florida. Woods doesn’t play two weeks in a row on the PGA Tour. Bay Hill in two weeks? Perhaps, given that Woods has won a phenomenal eight times at the Orlando course. The Players in three weeks? He owns two victories at the home of the PGA Tour, and despite that “better than most” moment at the island 17th en route to victory in 2001, TPC Sawgrass reputedly is not among his favorite spots. Nowhere else on the PGA Tour schedule leading up to Augusta would make sense for him.
Plus, Woods said this in December ahead of the Hero World Challenge, a PGA Tour exhibition which he did not play but still hosted because it benefits his foundation: “The goal is to play the major championships and just one or two more. That’s it. Physically, that’s all I can do. I don’t have much left in this leg.”
So, speculate about the run-up to the Masters, if you must, but embrace the return of the only man in golf who can steal a sliver of the Super Bowl hype: Tiger Woods is back this week. READ MORE
Steph Chambers, Getty Images
Woods will design one of two courses planned for Marcella Club near Park City, Utah, he announced on Instagram. The course, which will play at more than 8,000 yards, according to Park City’s TownLift news site, will sit at some 7,000 feet of elevation and be the fourth regulation course from Woods’ TGR Design company. Woods also said that his PopStroke putting and entertainment concept will open its sixth location this week, in Wesley Chapel, Florida. READ MORE and MORE
One of the worst-kept secrets about one of the best-loved holes in golf is out: Augusta National’s par-5 13th hole will play 35 yards longer for this year’s Masters, according to the media guide that was released by the club last week.
In recent months, aerial photography alerted golf fans to the fact that club officials were building an extended tee box to add length to the hole nicknamed “Azalea” for the colorful bushes that rim the end of a three-hole stretch known as Amen Corner. The 13th often had been reduced to a wedge or mid-iron approach for many modern touring pros who could power drives over the woods lining the left side or sling the tee shot around the right-to-left fairway slope. The additional length, to 545 yards, should restore much of the strategy of Alister MacKenzie’s original 1932 design and bring the tributary of Rae’s Creek fronting the steeply banked green more into play on the risk-reward second shot.
The lengthening of the 13th hole was the only change to the course for the 87th Masters, to be played April 6-9. Augusta National will measure 7,545 yards at a par of 72.
LIV Golf played up its team concept as the rival tour introduced its captains and two new squad names for the second season, which begins this month.
Teams Ripper and RangeGoats will debut, bumping Niblicks and Punch from LIV’s team roster. The full 48-player field was yet to be finalized as of late Sunday, so not all of the four-man teams are complete. However, LIV Golf, which launched last year as an invitational series of 48-man, 54-hole, no-cut events, will return February 24-26 at Mayakoba Resort in Mexico. The Saudi-funded circuit hopes to sell the 12 teams as franchises, modeled after other professional leagues.
Australia’s Cam Smith, the reigning Open champion, will captain an all-Aussie Ripper team, and American Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champion, will lead RangeGoats. The other captains: Dustin Johnson of the defending-champion 4 Aces; Martin Kaymer (Cleeks); Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers); Sergio García (Fireballs); Phil Mickelson (Hy Flyers); Kevin Na (Iron Heads); Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson (Majesticks); Brooks Koepka (Smash); Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger); and Joaquín Niemann (Torque). READ MORE
The PGA Tour wants to delay the trial date for the antitrust lawsuit filed by LIV Golf in federal court in California, contending that Phil Mickelson and others with ties to the Saudi-funded rival tour have stymied the discovery process by failing to produce documents. Jury selection for the trial is scheduled to begin January 8, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Northern California. READ MORE
In responding to the PGA Tour’s request for a delay in LIV Golf’s federal antitrust lawsuit, LIV lawyers conceded that the tour’s response to the rival tour has “driven down revenues to virtually zero.” READ MORE
The NCAA Division I men’s and women’s champions will be exempt into their respective U.S. Opens provided that they remain amateur, the USGA announced.
The move follows the recent move by Augusta National Golf Club to invite reigning NCAA champion Gordon Sargent to the 2023 Masters.
The NCAA women’s and men’s championships will be held in consecutive weeks in late May at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The USGA also expanded its list of Open exemptions to include the 2023 Latin America Amateur champion, provided that he remain an amateur, the Korn Ferry Tour season points leader from the previous year and the top five players in the FedEx Cup standings as of May 22 who were not otherwise exempt. It also clarified language for existing Tour Championship exemptions to include players who “qualified and are eligible” for the 30-man field. The move would exclude LIV’s Talor Gooch, who was suspended despite ranking 29th in the FedEx Cup. READ MORE
TAP-INS
Billy Walters, the gambler whose insider-trading ties to Phil Mickelson brought the former Masters champion under federal investigation, will release his autobiography this summer. “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk,” co-written with Armen Keteyian, will be available August 15, according to Simon & Schuster’s Avid Reader Press. Walters spoke with sportscaster Brent Musburger for a podcast on VSiN.com about the book. Mickelson was not charged in the insider-trading crime for which Walters was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to five years in federal prison. READ MORE
Americans Max Homa and Billy Horschel will join TGL for its inaugural season next year, TMRW Sports announced. The additions will give the Tiger Woods-Rory McIlroy-backed venture seven of the top 20 players in the world for the tech-infused Monday night golf league. READ MORE
Stacy Lewis will return in 2024 as the U.S. Solheim Cup captain, Golf.com reported, citing sources. Lewis will captain the American team this September in Spain against Europe’s top female professionals and would return for an encore performance in the U.S. when the biennial matches shift to even-numbered years beginning in 2024. Because of COVID-altered schedules in recent years, the men’s Ryder Cup is being held in the same year as the Solheim Cup. Lewis, who will turn 38 on February 16, is a 13-time winner on the LPGA and a four-time participant in the Solheim Cup. READ MORE
The PGA of America didn’t have to travel far to find its new chief operating officer. Craig Kessler, the CEO of Buff City Soap in Dallas, Texas, will be the PGA’s chief operating officer based at the association’s new headquarters in nearby Frisco, the PGA announced. Kessler had been the chief operating officer at Topgolf from 2016 to 2021. READ MORE
The USGA announced the launch of GS3, a high-tech rechargeable smart ball that is the size and weight of a standard golf ball, to calculate putting green speed, firmness, smoothness and trueness. READ MORE
Ten of the top 50-ranked players in the world, including defending champion Ting-Hsuan Huang of Taiwan, were confirmed for the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific, which will be played March 9-12 at Singapore Island Country Club, the R&A announced. READ MORE
NBA star Stephen Curry was named winner of the 2023 Ambassador of Golf Award, the PGA Tour Champions announced. The award honors someone who has fostered the ideals of the game internationally. Curry, 34, whose Golden State Warriors have won four league titles in his 13 seasons, has been active in sponsoring junior and college golf. He will receive the award July 8 in Akron, Ohio. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon