Tiger Woods walking pain-free again means there’s room for optimism in 2024

Nobody has the ability to stoke a good December fire better than Tiger Woods can. In recent times, December has become the month when Tiger ends a traditionally quiet, injury-ridden, health-hindered season by suddenly popping up like Punxsutawney Phil to exhibit his other-worldly skills on a golf course. In the tiniest of sample sizes, mind you.

Always, Woods leaves golf fans longing for more. Frequently, we are left with many more questions than concrete answers, with murky-at-best guesses as we connect small snippets, polish off crystal balls and predict what might be in store for Woods in the season ahead.

Tiger turns 48 later this month, so we’ll add the obligatory disclaimer that objects in the mirror may seem, well, closer than they appear. Until this month, Woods had played six official rounds in 2023 – four at The Genesis Invitational (T45) and two in April at the Masters, where he made the cut but withdrew without finishing his third round. Then he stepped back behind the curtain.

At last week’s PNC Championship and Tiger’s own Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas two weeks earlier, there was a different tint to watching Woods play. Tiger was healthier, fit and swinging the driver with speed. Most importantly, he had cleared a significant hurdle just by having the ability to perform the simplest of tasks: He can walk again, pain-free. In his 2023 downtime, Woods had his damaged right ankle fused. It has made a visible difference.

This time, as Woods points to 2024 and golf fans look forward to him potentially playing a little more than has been the norm – maybe six or eight times, if things go to plan – there seems to be a little extra room for optimism.

“Absolutely,” said Rob McNamara, vice president at TGR Ventures and Woods’ friend and trusted confidante. He probably sees more of Woods, on and off a golf course, than anybody.

“The fact that the ankle has held up this well is a positive thing,” McNamara said Sunday, walking the back nine with Tiger and Charlie Woods at PNC. “The fact that he can walk ... he went through a lot the last couple of years just to play in those few majors. This has been just a much more comfortable experience. It was tough to watch him even try to get through some of those rounds (when his ankle and leg were in pain), and now you can see that he’s comfortable, which is great.”

McNamara was like the rest of us watching Woods try to compete after his horrific 2021 crash on an early Monday morning in Los Angeles, when Woods tore through a curve and his vehicle tumbled down a steep embankment. Woods' right leg was damaged so severely that Woods wondered if he might lose it.

So we collectively cringed with fear and concern the last two seasons each time Woods drew a perilous sidehill lie, or climbed down into a deep bunker. It was painful to watch. Last week at PNC, Woods moved so much more freely. He did not display pain after big swings. Sunday got tricky at times, walking across slippery, soggy turf after a deluge of rain rolled through Orlando. But at the end of things, Woods looked no worse for wear. He appeared to be a content man, and at times wore a wide grin across his face.

His PNC Championship in Orlando had been more of a family gathering than a golf tournament, and that’s fine. For a fourth year, Woods, an 82-time winner on the PGA TOUR, played alongside his son, Charlie, now 14 and getting bigger, better and longer. This time, Tiger’s 16-year-old daughter, Sam, was able to join the fun, carrying her dad's bag for the very first time. So yes, the PNC is a bit of hit-and-giggle, played using a scramble format, with ball in hand. There is never a bad lie to be had.

It also was windy, especially on Sunday, when gusts exceeded 35 mph, and Woods had to summon old skills and sound thinking to pull off shots. In that regard, it was a quality test. His touch from 100 yards in was better, much sharper than he had been in the Bahamas. He dialed down some irons, like the low laser that bore through the wind to the back of the green at the par-3 17thon Sunday, or the approach that never left the flagstick on the previous hole.

And then there were times when the wind was just right when he sent towering iron shots sailing into the heavens, taking your breath away as only he seems to do.

“I was able to hit a lot of little nifty little shots, like 10 (where he clipped a nice sand wedge that pulled up a few feet from the hole), or some of the shots I hit pin-high just because we had ball-in-hand,” Woods said. “But the fact that I was able to hit the shots both ways, which was nice.”

Woods walking miles across a golf course without pain offers an altered vision for his immediate future. Tiger said his recovery went smoothly after walking 81 holes at the Hero World Challenge (a nine-hole pro-am, followed by four tournament days). On Monday after the tournament, he was already back in the gym.

Likewise, despite a cart being available to him, Woods walked 18-hole rounds at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Friday and Sunday (carts were mandatory on Saturday to beat impending storms). He passed on a cart for his Friday pro-am and also chose to walk on Sunday, as he and Charlie shot 61 and tied for fifth. He always has been able to hit the shots. His biggest impediment has been traveling down a fairway to get to it.

“At this point, it’s just about being able to get enough reps and playing more,” said Justin Thomas, his South Florida neighbor, who played alongside Woods at Hero and PNC. “You never know. I think every day is different for him. I think he would agree with that.

“But he still hits the shots that only he can hit. It’s something to where, if he can get enough practice to have his game in good golfing and tournament shape, I think it’s great. But you just never know what is going to happen.”

Another December is dwindling away, another birthday looms as Woods creeps toward 50, and we are left wondering what we’ll see from Tiger in the year ahead. As Woods himself reminded us on Sunday, he has not forgotten how to hit a golf ball. Dare we be bold enough: If all the stars align, can he win again? Is that even possible? Or is it simply naive, over-the-top wishfulness?

“I know if I can practice, I know I can still do it,” Woods said. “I can still hit the golf ball. I can still chip. I can still putt. Granted, it's also putting it all together for 72 holes. That's the challenging part of it.”

That, of course, and walking. Over two weeks in December, for Woods, that underrated element of his game appeared to be vastly improved.

Is there renewed hope for Tiger, now sitting at No. 901 in the World Ranking? Like Punxsutawney Phil, few can cast as big a shadow as he. In this season of great guesswork, if nothing else, ponder this as holiday eggnog chills in your glass. All of a sudden, 2024 has become awfully intriguing, has it not?