NEW PROVIDENCE, BAHAMAS | When it comes to walking his talk, there are very few athletes who can match Tiger Woods.
At the Hero World Challenge, there was no walk, in the literal sense of the word. Woods developed plantar fasciitis in his right foot as he ramped up his practice to get match-fit for the tournament – his first attempt at 72 holes in 19 weeks, since the 150th Open Championship. He pulled out at the beginning of the week here, denying his fans a sneak peek into the state of his golf heading into 2023.
The clubs may not have done the talking this time around, but Woods still came out swinging. There was no stopping the 15-time major champion as he refused to hold back on any issue facing the sport – a pleasing change from the days when he would duck even the most innocuous question.
No subject was taboo … except for one, perhaps. Apparently, he has had a couple of additional surgeries on the right leg this year, but he does not want to elucidate further.
No walk. That’s the reason why he did not play in this tournament, which benefits his TGR Foundation. He could have asked for permission to use a golf cart, but there is just too much pride in him to play golf that way.
But first things first: Woods insists that his game is there – he even disclosed that he shot a couple of 64s in a cart as he prepped for the tournament and, a few days ago, played 5-under for nine holes while walking – but that was pre-plantar fasciitis.
The condition, in which the band of tissue on the bottom of the foot becomes inflamed, is common with athletes. It frequently occurs in people who are on their feet for long periods of time.
In Woods’ case, it is on the same leg that got crushed under the SUV that he crashed in a single-vehicle rollover incident in February 2021 near Los Angeles. He reckons that the previous injury has a role to play in his new pain. Though surgery is an option with plantar fasciitis, Woods said that he will use a protracted period of rest and stretching to avoid the risks associated with going under the scissors.
He played only three times this year: four rounds and a 47th-place finish at the Masters, three painful rounds at the PGA Championship before withdrawing and two emotional days followed by a missed cut at St. Andrews. Woods forecast a sparse schedule in 2023.
“I don’t have much left in this leg, so gear up for the biggest ones and, hopefully, lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win and, hopefully, I remember how to do that.â€
TIGER WOODS
Woods, who will turn 47 on Dec. 30, is scheduled to play two events this month: the 12-hole “Match†in which he will partner with Rory McIlroy against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and the 36-hole PNC Championship, in which he will team with his 13-year-old son, Charlie. Woods said that he will be on a cart for all 48 holes.
It might take Woods a couple of months to recuperate completely. That would eliminate two of his early-season favorites in his native Southern California: the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. The Masters at Augusta National, where Woods won five of his 15 major titles, looks like the likely site of his return.
“The goal is to play just the major championships and maybe one or two more,†said Woods, who needs one more victory on the PGA Tour to break his tie with the late Sam Snead and become the most prolific winner in history, with 83.
“That’s all I can do physically,†Woods said. “I don’t have much left in this leg, so gear up for the biggest ones and, hopefully, lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win and, hopefully, I remember how to do that.â€
Once he was through with his medical updates and immediate plans, Woods turned to more serious topics.
On LIV Golf, he said there was no chance of the PGA Tour coming to the table for talks until the federal antitrust lawsuit brought by LIV Golf against the tour is withdrawn. He then echoed Rory McIlroy’s comments made one week earlier in Dubai and said Greg Norman would have to resign as LIV Golf’s CEO and commissioner because of his animosity toward the PGA Tour.
On the new Official World Golf Ranking, which has not granted status to LIV Golf tournaments, Woods called the system “flawed†and said there has to be meetings to fix it. He gave his own example about the time in the early 2000s when he could have gone a year without playing and still topped the ranking. It was later changed, and Woods is hopeful that something similar would be done with the current OWGR.
“We need to find a system that is a lot better than what we have now to identify younger players, like Tom Kim, and then give them access and opportunities on the (PGA) Tour.â€
Tiger Woods
Speaking exclusively to Global Golf Post, Woods said that his concern was not just about the disproportionate allocation of points on tours, based on their relative depth of field, but it also is vital to give promising youngsters a platform early in their careers.
“We need to find a system that is a lot better than what we have now to identify younger players, like Tom Kim, and then give them access and opportunities on the (PGA) Tour,†Woods said. “Younger players, new players, need to get access to the (PGA) Tour platform. That’s either through the official world-ranking system or getting tour cards to the top five or 10 amateurs on the World Amateur Golf Ranking. You’ve got to have different ranking systems that we keep pushing for.
“If you are a top-ranked amateur, and if you get on to tour events, there’s got to be some type of bonus structure for doing something like that.â€
On the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program – which measures players’ influence via social media and other factors and recently crowned Woods as the $15 million bonus winner for the second straight year despite his not playing a competitive round in 2021 and only nine in 2022 – he again called for a review of the system. He wants players who drive the most visibility for the PGA Tour to be rewarded, although he could have been speaking about himself.
Woods also let the world know about the respect that he holds for McIlroy, not just as a golfer – he even asks Charlie to copy the Northern Irishman’s swing and not his own – but also as a leader. The two have been interacting a lot more these days as joint founders of TMRW, the sports entertainment company that will be launching the tech-infused golf league TGL next year. They also are at the forefront of PGA Tour’s ongoing battles with LIV Golf.
Returning to the topic of walking and golf, Woods considers the activity as an integral, almost sacrosanct, part of the game. He is OK with playing on carts in the Match and PNC Championship, both of which allow riders, but never on a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Woods also revealed that he was one of the players who voted against Casey Martin, a former college teammate at Stanford, when he challenged the PGA Tour for permission to use a cart under the Americans With Disabilities Act, citing a degenerative circulatory condition that eventually led to amputation of his right leg. Martin prevailed in a legal case that was upheld in 2001 by the Supreme Court.
It’s just one of Woods’ many belief systems. It’s what prompts the rest of us to listen to him whenever he talks.
Top: Tiger Woods had plenty to say about the current state of the PGA Tour and the state of his own game.
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