If it's December, it's time for the Hero World Challenge, the Tiger Woods-hosted 20-man tournament in the Bahamas that caps off the golf year. Woods' foundation is a beneficiary of the event, and Woods himself holds a press conference at the start of every tournament week.
Unfortunately for fans of Woods, those press conferences in recent years have tended to be ever-more-grim updates on Woods' ever-more-fragile health. Woods hasn't played on the PGA Tour since his appearance at the 2024 Open Championship. Earlier this fall, he underwent yet another back surgery that will keep him off the course for an indeterminate length of time.
"I need time to figure this out with my back and with my body," Woods said Tuesday morning. "As I start to get more explosive and start to rotate and see what I've got, then I can find out or assess what tournaments I could play in, how much I should play, where I would like to play."
In the past, Woods has indicated that he'll pare his schedule back to a few select events, including majors and significant tournaments on the PGA Tour. He's also played the PNC Challenge with son Charlie, and competed in the debut season of TGL, the indoor golf league, but indicated Tuesday that both of those are off the table for now.
"I just started to chip and putt, I just started to lift in the gym, I just started this process. A disc replacement takes time," he said. "It's not as long as a fusion, thank God, but it's going to take time."
Woods noted that he'd spent significant time watching the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage, including conversations with most of the U.S. team. But when asked if he'd be interested in the 2027 captaincy at Adare Manor, he said, "No one's asked me about it." Asked directly about the captaincy, he repeated his same line.
Over the course of several questions, Woods delved into the thorny matter of the PGA Tour's future — specifically, the idea of scarcity weighed against the need to sustain and increase revenue while satisfying sponsor and broadcast obligations.
"We're trying to give the fans the best product we possibly can, and if we're able to give the fans the best product we can, I think we can make the players who have equity in the Tour, we can give them more of that," he said. "So the financial windfall could be fantastic for everyone who's involved."
As a member of the Tour's Future Competition Committee, Woods has a significant role in shaping the future direction of the Tour, whatever direction that might be. "We're trying to figure out what is the best schedule possible so we can create the best fields and have the most viewership and also the most fan involvement," he said.
"I know I'm not really saying a whole lot, but I'm trying to say as much as I possibly can because there's so many moving parts to this and it changes all the time," he said. "It all starts with the best tour on the planet, which is ours."
Asked why he wanted to mount another comeback, Woods was more contemplative than his past conquer-everything self. "I'd like to come back to just playing golf again," he said. "I haven't played golf in a long time. It's been a tough year."
