Tiger Woods is not competing in the 2024 Hero World Challenge due to various nagging injuries. On Tuesday, while holding court as host of his annual tournament in the Bahamas, the 15-time major champion expressed uncertainty about returning to the golf course following a sixth back surgery in September.
“I’m not ready for the tournament yet, no. I’m still not there,” Woods said. “These are 20 of the best players in the world, and I’m not strong enough to compete with them at this level. So when I’m ready to compete and play at this level, then I will.”
It was at the Hero World Challenge a season ago where Woods was a surprise inclusion in the field. Ultimately finishing in 18th place among the 20 players, Woods left the tournament with the certainty of being able to play once a month on the PGA Tour in 2024.
Tiger’s ambitions were never fulfilled as he withdrew from the Genesis Invitational in February due to illness and back spasms. he was only seen again at the Masters. The 48-year-old made the cut for a 24th consecutive time at Augusta National, but fell to the bottom of the leaderboard by the end of the tournament. Missed cuts followed in the final three major championships of the season – his only other starts in 2024.
“I didn’t think my back was going to hurt like this year,” Woods said. “It was quite painful throughout the end of the year and so I had another procedure to relieve the pain I had in my leg. So if my commitment going forward is one times a month, yes, I could say it’s starting again, but I really don’t know.
“I’m just trying to rehabilitate and always get stronger and better and feel better, really give myself the best possible chance for next year. This year it was kind of – I had to throw it all away, and I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be, and I didn’t play as much as I needed to to make the majors, and I didn’t play well there hopefully. next year will be better – I will be physically stronger. and better I know the procedure helped, and I hope I can build on that afterwards.”
Woods has only competed in 10 official PGA Tour events, missing four cuts and withdrawing three times since being seriously injured and hospitalized following a car accident in February 2021. His latest ranking in the PGA Tour’s top 20 came at the 2020 Farmers Insurance. Opened just two starts after notching his 82nd career victory at the Zozo Championship the previous fall.
“I’m just gradually trying to test (my back), keep progressing without triggering it,” Woods said. “I don’t want to have any setbacks, I just want to keep progressing and give myself the best chance possible for next year. I feel like I’m getting stronger. I’m getting more flexible, but I have I I have a long way to go to be able to compete with these guys.”
