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Tiger Woods
turned 50 on Tuesday, making the 15-time major championship winner eligible
to compete on the PGA Tour Champions circuit once he recovers from his latest
health setbacks.
Woods hasn’t publicly said whether he intends to play on the former Senior PGA
Tour, which allows golfers to use carts and has a 54-hole format at most
tournaments outside of the 72-hole majors.
This past season was the first time Woods didn’t compete in a single tournament
on the PGA Tour. He was scheduled to compete in the Genesis Invitational but
pulled out, saying he wasn’t ready to compete after the death of his mother,
Kultida, on Feb. 4.
Then Woods ruptured his left Achilles tendon in march while ramping up training
and practice at home in Florida for the Masters. He had what is believed to be
his seventh back surgery Oct.10 to replace a disk in his lower back that caused
pain and mobility issues.
During a news conference at the hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Dec. 2,
Woods said he had only recently started putting and chipping and wasn’t close to
being able to take full swings.
“Once I get a feel for practicing, exploding, playing, the recovery process,
then I can assess where I’m going to play and how much I’ll play,” Woods said.”I’m a ways away from that part of it and that type of decision, that type of
commitment level.”
If not for Woods’ myriad injuries, he’d probably still have plenty of
competitive golf left in him after reaching the half-century mark.
Phil Mickelson
became the oldest major championship winner at 50 when he won the 2021 PGA
Championship at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
Injuries have been Woods’ biggest obstacle in recent years. He has competed in
only 11 PGA Tour tournaments in the past five seasons since suffering serious
injuries in a single-car wreck outside Los Angeles in February 2021. Woods had
multiple “open fractures” to his lower right leg, and he had a rod placed in
his tibia and screws and pins inserted in his foot and ankle during emergency
surgery. He later told reporters that surgeons nearly had to amputate his right
leg.
After pulling out of the 2023 masters before a sunday restart following
weather delays, Woods said he had aggravated plantar fasciitis in his foot. He
underwent surgery 10 days later to address post-traumatic arthritis in his
right ankle, then had a microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve
impingement in the lower back in September 2024.
