NASSAU, Bahamas — The final decade of Tiger Woods’ profession has been a collection of stops and begins, the golf world greedy for each comeback earlier than he goes away as soon as extra. The promise of one other new starting has introduced this group right here, ready patiently for a Mercedes-Benz very like those which have ferried the opposite key companions to this a part of Albany Golf Course.
However then Tiger Woods simply appeared, seemingly from skinny air. He walked across the nook of the white tent — alone — like he was merely on his morning stroll and mentioned, “Hey, guys,” to the ready media. The No. 1 participant on this planet is within the discipline at this comparatively obscure golf match within the Caribbean, as is the 2023 PGA Tour champion, two 2023 main winners and a lot of the remainder of the most important names in golf. However because it at all times does, all consideration centered as a substitute on the person at present ranked No. 1,328 on this planet.
At first, as Tiger Woods sat down for his annual press convention to preview the Hero World Problem — a no-cut, limited-field occasion he hosts for himself and his PGA Tour buddies — and focus on the state of Tiger Woods, he appeared identical to the 15-time main champion that he’s. However because the dialog unfolded, the truth of the brand new individual in entrance of us grew to become clear. Right here was Tiger Woods, PGA Tour coverage board member. Tiger Woods, the co-founder of a brand new golf league. Tiger Woods the investor, the restaurateur, the course designer. Tiger Woods, the 47-year-old legend transitioning towards and turning into the authoritative, senior presence of a sport in disaster.
“Don’t say senior,” Woods quipped. “I’m not there but. I’ve received a pair extra years.”
Woods can also be a golfer, once more. And he plans to maintain enjoying for some time, saying his proper ankle is powerful sufficient to permit him to stroll 18 holes with out ache following his post-Masters subtalar fusion surgical procedure. He even hinted at enjoying a once-a-month schedule in 2024, which would come with all 4 majors. However little or no about Woods’ focus Tuesday was on his enjoying skill and future profession, joking, “I’m simply as curious as all of you with what’s going to occur. I haven’t completed this shortly.”
His newest comeback was the secondary storyline, the main focus as a substitute on the way forward for the PGA Tour and males’s skilled golf. He was a politician/government, speaking confidently about each problem for the PGA Tour. He answered questions concerning the standing of the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia negotiations with the identical conviction as if PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was saying it. Perhaps extra authority, wielding his energy round three totally different instances to say Monahan making offers with the PIF with out the gamers enter “can’t occur once more.”
He drove house the necessity for the gamers to manage their very own future, the identical want that led to gamers pressuring Monahan so as to add an additional board seat for gamers and for that seat to go to Woods. He spoke of a number of “different choices” for the PGA Tour to search out new funding if the PIF deal doesn’t occur. He answered questions concerning the new TGL league he helped begin as a counter to the staff mannequin of LIV, the rival league funded by PIF.
Woods, one of the idiosyncratic and ruthless rivals within the historical past of sports activities, is now working because the main pressure for change in golf.
Take into consideration the way in which Woods talks about his physique, wherein he says his foot and ankle ache are gone nevertheless it additionally means he has to place strain on different elements of his physique. Now it goes to his knees or his again.
“The forces need to go someplace,” he mentioned.
For many years, Tiger Woods put his whole focus into turning into probably the most dominant golfer of all time. That golfer is fading. The forces needed to go someplace.
In April, two months earlier than the shock PIF announcement, a hobbled Woods performed a Masters follow spherical with Tom Kim and Rory McIlroy. The 21-year-old Kim is a sponge for this type of stuff, peppering Woods and McIlroy with fixed questions forward of his first Augusta Nationwide look. How would you method this gap? What does the wind do right here?
And Woods answered. He shared commerce secrets and techniques and let certainly one of golf’s brightest younger stars in, identical to his idols had as soon as completed for him.
“Hey, I used to be fortunate sufficient to have performed with Freddie ({Couples}) and Raymond (Floyd) my first 12 months,” he mentioned that April day with a smile. “And Seve (Ballesteros) and Ollie (Jose Maria Olazabal). That was unbelievable. After which Jack and Arnold, the Par 3 Contest with these guys. That’s what this match permits us to do, is move on data and acquire data from the previous and apply it.”
Tiger Woods made his newest return to the course this week on the Hero World Problem. (Mike Ehrmann / Getty Pictures)
Woods allowed himself to be nostalgic forward of a significant championship, a stark departure from his heyday. He shared tales of Floyd giving his recommendation on an method shot by a gallery on No. 2 (“Effectively, you hit it proper over at them, after which proper earlier than it lands, you yell ‘fore’”). He joked a few horrible tee shot in 2005 that arrange his iconic chip on the sixteenth gap. He talked about his son, Charlie, and the way he won’t view golf with the identical aggressive vigor he as soon as did, nevertheless it’s nonetheless every thing to him. “So the enjoyment,” Woods mentioned, “it’s totally different.”
That ingredient can’t be overlooked with Woods at this second in time. Perhaps as soon as he was so obsessive about greatness that he didn’t have the bandwidth or the curiosity for such issues, however now he can see he’s the determine all the golf world appears to, and he has the capability to make use of it.
“It was an honor for him to type of get the torch handed to him from Arnold and Jack,” mentioned Justin Thomas, maybe the present participant closest to Woods. “So I believe he’s it as he needs to type of move that to no matter the next technology is.”
This can be a part seen typically within the golf world. Palmer and Nicklaus aged into manufacturers as a lot as golfers of their later years, and Woods was the most important enterprise model in golf historical past by his mid-20s. He launched the TGR Basis along with his household as early as 1996 and has since grow to be a billionaire. But Woods’ presence continues to develop. He owns eating places — The Woods in Jupiter, Fla., miniature golf-dining chain Popstroke and now an upscale New York Metropolis sports activities bar, T-Squared Social, with Justin Timberlake.
Woods was as soon as the face of the EA Sports activities golf video video games however now’s on the quilt of PGA Tour 2K23. Within the peak of the PGA Tour’s warfare with LIV, his enterprise capital agency teamed with Rory McIlroy to begin the indoor TGL staff golf league (which was initially slated to start in January however has been delayed to 2025). And his TGR Design agency has created greater than a dozen programs, a number of of which have hosted PGA Tour occasions.
“Tiger is intimately concerned in each step of the golf design course of, from deciding on the tasks to laying out the routing to offering shaping path throughout development,” longtime good friend and TGR Design president Bryon Bell mentioned. “He spends loads of time on web site throughout development finalizing the golf technique by finding bunkers and laying out the inexperienced complexes.”
However Woods taking up these roles will not be merely symbolic, a reputation and a face assured to promote a product. He’s deeply concerned, and that’s nearly the purpose. McIlroy served because the gamers’ largest voice within the board room and was additionally typically put within the place of explaining PGA Tour selections during the last two years. He managed to search out success on the course (the 2022 Tour Championship, two wins this season) however did so whereas at all times on the cellphone dealing with board duties. Then Monahan went behind McIlroy and the gamers’ backs to create the framework settlement wherein Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyad are trying to create a joint firm with each the PGA Tour and LIV beneath its umbrella. That solely cemented McIlroy’s want to step away from the board (Jordan Spieth has taken his place). However Woods doesn’t have those self same enjoying commitments. He can pour himself into this, and pouring himself into issues is what Tiger does.
“I do know he doesn’t sleep quite a bit,” Spieth mentioned, “however he’s spending most of his waking hours fascinated by methods to higher the PGA Tour for the gamers. And he doesn’t have to try this. He may journey off into the sundown if he needs. We all know that’s not his character.”
Woods is consistently on the cellphone, sending emails or hopping on Zoom calls. “I believe he positively takes it very significantly,” Thomas mentioned. “He doesn’t take it flippantly.” There was a clamoring this fall, within the wake of a blowout loss in Rome, for Woods to captain america Ryder Cup staff in 2025. Woods doesn’t have time to consider that. “There’s an excessive amount of at stake with our tour to consider a Ryder Cup proper now,” Woods mentioned.
Woods’ presence in these conferences is formidable, reflecting his stature. “He’s not stepping in to throw affect anyplace,” Spieth mentioned. “It simply comes with him when he walks within the door. He’s a listener and he has loads of expertise. He’s seen the PGA Tour undergo loads of totally different modifications over nearly 30 years for him now. He comes with that type of perspective in addition to by some means a means of recognizing what might be good for the PGA Tour and its whole membership when he’s by no means been an abnormal member, nevertheless it doesn’t appear misplaced on him.”
Regardless, it appears to have Woods energized, stuffed with goal. His golf sport will not be some essential focus, as Thursday’s first spherical was the primary time he even performed 18 holes since making the lower on the Masters in April however withdrawing halfway via the third spherical. He has no thought who will caddie for him subsequent season and didn’t appear to place a lot thought into it. However when it got here to questions concerning the tour, he jumped.
So he was requested: Do you take pleasure in being this presence in golf?
“Effectively, I take pleasure in the truth that I’m capable of make an impression in another way than simply hitting a golf ball. I made an impression on the PGA Tour for plenty of years hitting a golf ball and doing that. I can have, I believe, a long-lasting impression by doing what I’m doing, by being on the board and being part of the way forward for the PGA Tour.”
There’s a photograph of Charlie Woods and his highschool golf staff celebrating the Florida state championship they only gained, with a freshman Charlie ending T-26 within the particular person portion. Within the background behind them, you may see Tiger Woods. He’s simply standing there in a puffer vest, holding an umbrella in his proper hand. He’s only a dad.
He talks about Charlie nearly any time he speaks, saying he’s capable of share a bond over the game of golf the identical means he did spending late hours placing on the Navy Golf Course with Earl. The recovering star carried Charlie’s bag for 54 holes at a junior golf occasion in early November. Few athletes have ever been as publicly related to their father as Woods was, Earl coaching Woods so onerous as a boy however then being the primary to obtain an emotional embrace after these candy victories. And for higher or worse, Charlie’s younger golf profession is already receiving an identical, obsessive kind of consideration.
Charlie Woods’ staff gained the @FHSAA State Championship in entrance of Tiger 🔥🐅
(📸 Palm Seaside Put up) pic.twitter.com/jk3R9nNB5v— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) November 16, 2023
As a result of now Woods’ consideration isn’t on his personal achievements. Removed from it. However they’re on his son, and doubtlessly on what his son will participate in.
“I’m positive there’s some type of state of affairs in his head the place he’s like, ‘Yeah, no matter Charlie needs to do, that’s nice.’ However I’m positive he has some visions in his head of, ‘Oh, I might like to have Charlie be enjoying out right here, after which the children he’s enjoying in opposition to,’” Thomas mentioned. “It’s larger image. I believe as little as he’s enjoying, it’s very clear that the choices he’s making and ideas that he has isn’t for his personal good, it’s for the betterment of the sport.”
This isn’t about whether or not Charlie Woods turns into a PGA Tour golfer. It’s about the truth that one of the hyper centered, compulsively aggressive athletes to roam this Earth, who performed one of the particular person sports activities there’s, has shifted his considering. He doesn’t appear nervous about himself. He’s nervous concerning the sport. And historical past says don’t get in Tiger Woods’ means when he’s centered on one thing.
“I’m happy on the course of and the way it’s developed,” he mentioned. “Additionally pissed off in a number of the slowness.”
There he’s. That’s the Cat.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Picture: Michael Owens / Getty Pictures)
