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Tiger Woods ready for return to action at The PLAYERS Championship

By Brandon Raper

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL - MAY 13: Tiger Woods of the United States stands on the 16th green during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on May 13, 2018 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL - MAY 13: Tiger Woods of the United States stands on the 16th green during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on May 13, 2018 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) /
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Tiger Woods missed the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a lingering neck issue. While it raised a lot of questions about his health going forward, the Hall of Famer says he’s ready for his return to action at The PLAYERS Championship.

Tiger Woods sent shockwaves through the golf world when he announced that he was skipping the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The eight-time champion at Bay Hill has held Palmer, and his event, in high regard for essentially his entire life. Even more, when he revealed why he was skipping it, Woods produced almost as many questions as answers.

A neck strain is no fun for most golfers, hindering range of motion and generally being a nuisance for not just the four-plus hours of a round, but several more before and after. But when it comes to 43-year-old Tiger Woods and his history of neck and back issues, you had to wonder if this was something deeper, something longer lasting.

Thankfully, for now at least, we have our answer, and it arrived at TPC Sawgrass on Monday looking – and sounding – as confident as ever before. There aren’t many players in any sport where a six-second clip of them arriving for work racks up Twitter views, but when we’re talking Tiger, things are just a little bit different.

Of course, you say, anybody can walk in to a clubhouse and look great. But Tiger also acknowledged the skepticism that many still have regarding his injury status, and it should put you to ease fairly quickly.

“I feel good, man,” Tiger said on Monday. “I didn’t want to push it. No need to, not at my age. Can’t do that anymore”

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Certainly, Woods isn’t as young as he used to be, and who among us is? As great as Tiger looked for so much of 2018, it was easy to forget that the wear that his body has withstood for more than 20 years doesn’t just go away overnight. He understands that some tough decisions will need to be made beyond just a single week, especially if he intends to compete at a high level in the PGA TOUR’s biggest events.

According to Golfweek, Woods said that he didn’t so much as pick up a club in his impromptu bye week, right up until Saturday this past weekend. Of course, this is Tiger Woods we’re talking about. He’s been around the block plenty of times, and especially at TPC Sawgrass, he’ll have a huge edge on most of the field in the experience department alone.

Woods has won The PLAYERS Championship twice in his career, one of just six players ever to accomplish that feat. If he can pull off another this week, he would tie the legendary Jack Nicklaus, currently the only one with three PLAYERS titles.

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The fact that Woods missed one of his favorite tournaments at Bay Hill last week isn’t encouraging. But I also don’t believe that he’d be rushing back into action now, at Sawgrass or anywhere else, with the Masters Tournament just three weeks away if he wasn’t ready for it. We’ll see what that looks like in just a few days’ time.

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