Tiger Woods shuts down return rumors as he gets honest about his current state

Tiger Woods dismissed the speculations around his return to golf in a 30-minute long press conference on 3rd December. He missed the cut in the Open Championship in July 2024 and after almost five months, the American professional sat down for an interview today.

The legendary golfer recently had back surgery for the sixth time in his career. When he was asked in the press conference if he wanted to come back or not, Tiger Woods had a straightforward answer. He shut down all the speculations surrounding his return and replied (as reported by golfmonthly.com):

"I don't. I really don't. I'm just progressively trying to test it, keep making progress without setting it off. I don't want to have any setbacks."

"I've got a long way to go to compete against these guys."

He answered several questions on TGL, the Ryder Cup's pay, Saudi PIF's deal with the PGA Tour, and the recent changes in the PGA. Tiger Woods also gave an update on his health. He made it clear that even if he loves to compete, his body's current state of recovery is 'not what it used to be'. As seen in an X (formerly Twitter) post by NBC's Golf Today, Woods answered:

"The fire still burns to compete. 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 whether it's cards or golf, I love competing."

"As far as the recovery process of doing it again and again and again, for some reason the body won't recover like it used to. That's part of age and part of an athlete's journey."

Will Tiger Woods participate in the Hero World Challenge 2024?

The Masters - Round Two - Source: Getty

The 2024 Hero World Challenge is coming up next week in the Bahamas. Scottie Scheffler will be defending his title at the Albany Golf Club against 19 popular competitors. Yesterday, fans got the confirmed list of players along with their fields from the PGA Tour's official account.

Besides other prominent names like Tony Finau and Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods could not be spotted in the list of 20 players. This year, he will not be teeing off in this event due to his surgery in September. We will, however, get to witness Woods hosting the Hero World Challenge at Nassau, starting from 5th December.

In the 2023 edition of this competition, Woods ranked 18 on the leaderboard with an even par. Tiger Woods has won this event a total of five times and holds the record for the most wins by an individual player. Apart from his back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007, the rest of his victories were in 2001, 2004, and 2011. He has also finished as a runner-up five times in the Hero World Challenge.