Tiger Woods’ ‘burning desire’ fuels latest surgery | Sports News

Tiger Woods expressed his longing to “just play golf again” when questioned about a potential return from his latest harm ordeal.

Woods hasn’t participated in a skilled match since The Open Championship in July 2024. The 15-time main winner suffered an Achilles rupture in March and underwent back surgery in October, sparking issues that his time on the high of the game is likely to be drawing to a close.

The 49-year-old confronted reporters on Tuesday on the Hero World Challenge, a match he hosts in The Bahamas. This marked his first public dialogue about his rehabilitation following his most up-to-date setback.

Woods has barely performed since sustaining extreme accidents in a high-speed car accident in 2021.

Numerous questions had been posed about Woods’ restoration and his plans for 2026. His response to inquiries about a doable comeback was revealing, suggesting that his days of common PGA Tour play are behind him.

“Come back to what point? I’d like to come back to just playing golf again,” he confessed. “I haven’t played golf in a long time. It’s been a tough year. I’ve had a lot of things happen on and off the golf course that’s been tough.

“So my ardour to simply play, I have not finished that in a long time. Just play. So I’ve needed to sit on the sidelines for a quantity of months, and most of this 12 months and, fairly frankly, the top of final 12 months.”

Last week, Woods was given the green light by his doctors to start chipping and putting again, but he admits that the rehab process in the six weeks since his surgery has been “gradual” and frustrating.

Woods sidestepped questions about his potential schedule for 2026 and remained undecided about participating in the PGA Tour Champions. He will be eligible to join the senior circuit when he celebrates his 50th birthday later this month.

“It’s not as fast as I’d prefer it to be,” Woods commented on his recovery process. “[The surgery] was a good factor to do, one thing I needed to have occur, and it simply takes time and dedication to the rehab course of.

“Just let me get back to playing again, let me do that and then I’ll kind of figure out what the schedule is going to be. I’m a ways away from that part of it and that type of decision, that type of commitment level.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been by means of this rehab course of earlier than; it is simply step-by-step. Once I get a really feel for working towards, exploding, and taking part in, the restoration course of, then I can assess the place I’m going to play and how a lot I’ll play.”

He continued: “[I] cannot actually do a lot. Now we obtained the OK to start out cranking up a little bit within the health club, began strengthening and began doing a little bit more of the rotational element that I have not been in a position to do. Just letting the disc form of set.”

Woods mentioned that his focus has been primarily on his health and his role as a member of the PGA Tour Enterprises board of directors, rather than pondering over playing on the senior tour.

“I do not know. I need time to determine this out with my back and with my physique,” he responded when asked if a comeback on the PGA Tour Champions was a more feasible goal.

“As I begin to get more explosive and begin to rotate and see what I’ve obtained, then I can discover out or assess what tournaments I may play in, how a lot I ought to play, the place I want to play.

“I really haven’t gone in depth of what the schedule looks like on the Champions Tour except for a few tournaments. Even our schedule, I’ve been working on our 2027-28 schedule. It’s been not exactly golf based, personally, it’s been about trying to do what’s best for the Tour.”