Tiger Woods is not competing at this week's Hero World Challenge, the PGA Tour challenge event he hosts at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. After a back surgery in September to alleviate lumbar pain, he's still on the mend.
As for when Woods can play golf again? Woods says he "truly" doesn't know what that timeline looks like.
"These are 20 of the best players in the world and I'm not sharp enough to compete against them. So when I'm ready to compete and play at this level, then I will," he said. "I am disappointed. I'm not physically ready yet to compete at this level. I still need to keep training to give myself the best chance into next year and the events ahead."
Woods said just before Thanksgiving that he would be unable to compete in his 20-player event, onto which Hero Motors has signed a sponsorship extension through 2030.
The 15-time major winner turns 49 on December 30. He still wants to be out, inside the ropes, competing against the best. However, as he's known for almost a decade now, his body doesn't always co-operate.
"The fire still burns to compete," Woods said. "The difference is the recovery of the body to do it is not what it used to be. I still love doing it, I love competing, I love competing in anything whether we're playing cards or we're playing golf. No matter what it is, I love competing. That's never going to leave.
"But as far as the recovery process of going out there and doing it again and again and again and doing it consistently at a high level, I can't, for some reason the body just won't recover like it used to. That's part of age and part of an athlete's journey."
Woods played in just the four men's majors this year, making the cut at Augusta National to finish T-60 at the Masters. He missed the cut in the other three majors, lamenting at Pinehurst in June that he may have played in his final US Open. He doesn't have a lifetime exemption to the national championship, as winners only get a 10-year exemption, compared to the other three. Woods' five-year US Open exemption for winning the 2019 Masters ended in 2023, and he accepted a special invitation to compete this year.
Looking back on his limited play in 2024, Woods shared that the pain he felt in his back only worsened throughout the year.
"I didn't think my back was going to go like it did this year. It was quite painful throughout the end of the year and hence I had another procedure done to it to alleviate the pain I had going down my leg," he said.
"As the year went on, it just kept progressively getting worse to the point where it just wasn't getting better either from treatments or laying around resting or even activations. Nothing felt good and the MRI showed that. The relief I had, I didn't have a spasm, I didn't have the nerve pain, so that was fantastic, but also understood that I still have a long road ahead of me of rehab and recovery.
"I wish I hadn't known this, but I know it very well and I know the process, I know how long it's going to take. We'll continue doing all the gym work and continue doing all the protocols and eventually it will lead to something where I can compete again."
