Met with media at Hero World Challenge

Tiger Woods said he continues to build strength and implied he is playing again. But, he added, he is not yet ready to return to action.

Woods met with the media at the Hero World Challenge at Albany in the Bahamas on Tuesday to talk about the tournament he hosts but will not play this week as he continues to recover from September back surgery.

“I’m not tournament sharp yet,” he said. “I’m still not there. These are 20 of the best players in the world and I’m not sharp enough to compete against them at this level.”

At last year’s Hero World Challenge, where he finished 18th (of 20), Woods said he hoped to play more regularly in 2024. Alas, Woods, who will turn 49 on Dec. 30, saw his year start poorly (WD, flu, The Genesis Invitational) and never really take flight due to back pain.

“As the year went on it just continued getting worse,” he said.

The winner of 82 PGA TOUR titles, including 15 majors, he made his record 24th consecutive cut at the Masters but shot 82-77 on the weekend to finish 60th, last among those who made the cut. He missed the cut, sometimes by a wide margin, at the PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship.

Then came another microdiscectomy, believed to have been his sixth.

“I didn’t think my back was going to go like it did,” he said. “It was quite painful through the end of the year, and thus I had another procedure done to it to alleviate the pain going down my leg. I’m trying to rehab it … to give myself the best chance I can going into next year.”

Woods has made just 13 PGA TOUR starts over the last four seasons, and has completed four rounds just twice since the 2021 single-car accident in which he suffered fractures to his right leg, plus trauma to his right ankle. Doctors inserted a rod, screws and pins to stabilize Woods’ leg. He played that way, but subsequent plantar fasciitis in his right ankle necessitated a subtalar fusion procedure in 2023, after which he missed another 10 months.

Woods could start playing next year in the inaugural season of TGL, which starts in January.

“I know the procedure helped,” he said of his latest back surgery, “and hopefully I can build on that.”

At the very least, he added, his quality of life has improved, allowing him to be a better dad to his two kids and a better golf dad to son Charlie. Whether or not Woods has been healthy enough to play in the Hero, he has in recent years teamed up with Charlie for the PNC Championship, which allows the use of golf carts.

Woods did not say whether he is planning on playing the PNC.