Tiger Woods set for competitive return at The Genesis Invitational

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – There are 53 steps from the 18th green to the clubhouse at The Riviera Country Club, the eucalyptus-lined, history-soaked course that is the playground of LA luminaries and the host course for The Genesis Invitational.

Tiger Woods, who will tee off in Round 1 alongside Justin Thomas and Gary Woodland at 9:25 a.m. local time Thursday, can climb them all. If that seems like damning with faint praise, keep in mind that Woods has been feeling his age. In his last start at the unofficial Hero World Challenge, he showed flashes of form but failed to break 70 and finished 18th in a 20-man field. He’s had more than two months off since then – theoretically enough time to get stronger, and sharper.

“A W would be nice,” Woods said Wednesday, when asked what he’s hoping for this week.

Sound familiar?

As his presser went on, though, reality crept in. He mentioned his fused back, his fused ankle.

“Do I feel it physically?” he said. “Yeah, absolutely. Each and every day. That’s part of having surgeries and rehab, but I’m excited about this week, and excited about hosting and playing.”

The Genesis Invitational, of course, is the tournament where Woods, the host, has racked up more starts without a victory (15) than anywhere else. He said Wednesday he hasn’t putted well enough, but even with his lackluster record, other players are acutely aware of his presence.

“Drove up from San Diego yesterday and the first person I saw in the locker room was Tiger,” said Charley Hoffman, who finished second in a playoff at the WM Phoenix Open last weekend. “He goes, ‘Good job, old man.’ He's older than me, but it's nice to get that.”

You can only land a jab like that if one, you’re Woods, and two, you’re pretty old yourself. Woods, 48, would not deny it, but he is making his first official PGA TOUR start since walking became too painful and he withdrew after making the cut at the Masters Tournament in April.

Soon, he was headed to New York for ankle fusion surgery that alleviated his discomfort. He returned in December at the unofficial Hero, a tournament he also hosts. This week marks his first start in an official TOUR event, non-major, since last year’s Genesis Invitational (T45).

“I’m just happy to see the man not limping,” Max Homa said. “He makes the event feel bigger.”

Woods will debut a new ball (2024 Bridgestone TOUR B X), new clothing line (Sun Day Red), and new (temporary) caddie, veteran Lance Bennett, at Riviera. Although simply playing again is a victory, the prospect of an actual victory, which would be his 83rd, breaking the current tie with Sam Snead for most all time on the PGA TOUR, is more complicated.

The Genesis, the first TOUR event Woods ever attended and the first he played in, as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992, has not been a happy hunting ground. His closest brushes with victory have been in 1998 (playoff loss to Billy Mayfair at nearby Valencia Country Club) and a T2 in 1999.

What’s more, the fate of 40-somethings has been sub-optimal, with few recent exceptions (Lucas Glover, Camilo Villegas). Hoffman, 47, shot a final-round 64 but got reeled in by Nick Taylor at TPC Scottsdale on Sunday. Players in their 40s won just twice in 2020, once in ’22, and four times last season. They totaled 74 top-15 finishes last season, down from 151 in 2010.

And yet this is Woods, who played in the Wednesday pro-am with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. He won the 2019 Masters and ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP at 43, despite his voluminous medical history. One way or another, the normal rules of aging may not apply.

What he needs, as he often says, is competitive reps. He said at the Hero that with the pain of walking behind him he hopes to play once a month this season, and with that in mind The Genesis represents the first step toward some sort of resumption of his career. He hasn’t had more than three starts in a season since 2020 (seven) and hasn’t had double-digit starts in a season since 2019 (12, with four top-10s including the Masters and ZOZO wins).

He just needs to play again.

“How the body feels,” he said at Riviera, “and the process of preparing for an event, and the aging process, that’s been the trick and the challenge of it all.”