The 15-time major winner has not played a round of competitive golf since The Open in 2024 due to a ruptured left Achilles last March, then a lumbar disk replacement surgery in October.
But he’s not been away from golf altogether. Woods has been the self-appointed team manager of his TGL team, Jupiter Links. Max Homa, Tom Kim and Akshay Bhatia have been in form and will play Los Angeles in the final next week.
Admittedly, Woods has been eyeing a comeback on the high-tech simulator, but it hasn’t worked out.
“Well, I think that I have been trying to play each and every one of these matches,” the 50-year-old told ESPN.
“I’ve been trying to come back. But it just hasn’t worked out that way. But the guys here, this team, we have so much fun, I really don’t want to screw up the lineup, I just want these guys to keep playing.”
When pressed about the Masters – which tees off on 9 April at Augusta National – Woods remained coy.
“I said I’ve been working on it,” he continued.
“Sometimes I have good days, sometimes I have bad days. Disk replacement is not a lot of fun. So as I said, I’ve had a lot of procedures prior to that, so 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.”
