Most athletes with an damage list as lengthy and detailed as Tiger Woods would be retired from professional sport. Woods, however, is totally different to most athletes.
The 15-time major champion’s much-anticipated return to professional golf on the Hero World Challenge within the Bahamas wasn’t perfect, nor was it ever more doubtless to be.
But in his first match in nearly eight months, Woods demonstrated that he can still be aggressive at a excessive standard and that his want to maintain enjoying remains undiminished.
He finished on even par at Albany Golf Club on Sunday, putting 18th out of 20 on the general leaderboard. His final round featured five birdies – together with a wonderful lengthy putt on the fifth – in addition to some wayward moments: a double bogey on the second hole and three additional bogeys on the eighth, eleventh and sixteenth.
All in all, there were some promising signs for the 47-year-old. Woods averaged 305 yards off the tee, proving that his long recreation is in good well being, and he additionally confirmed that his beaten and ageing body can still stand up to the trials of 4 rounds of aggressive golf.
“The physicality of really enjoying and competing again – I haven’t carried out this in a while. It was nice to get on the market with the blokes and have some enjoyable and compete. I simply want I may have performed somewhat bit cleaner however there’s always next time.”
For Woods, next time will be the copyright Championship, a father-son tournament which tees off in Orlando, Florida on December 14.
This would be the fourth time in a row that Woods has entered the occasion alongside his son Charlie and his second match since present process ankle surgical procedure in April.
In 2024, Woods hopes to play on the PGA Tour as quickly as a month. While competing within the Bahamas, he stated that the Genesis Invitational in February and the Players Championship in March might be choices as he steps up his aggressive return.
From there, he might appear at the Masters in April and even at the Olympics in Paris later in the year.
“Once a month seems reasonable, and it offers me a few weeks to get well, per week to tune up,” Woods mentioned on Sunday. “Maybe more info I can get into the rhythm of something like that. That’s what the plan was going into next year. I don’t see why that may change.”
During the Hero World Challenge, which Woods hosts, he said that he had been “pleasantly surprised” together with his physical recovery between rounds..