Why Tiger’s Return at PNC Doesn’t Mean He’s Tour Ready

This week, Tiger Woods made big news in what is traditionally a down time of year for golf when he announced that he and his son Charlie would play in the PNC Championship.  Big news, because as most everyone who has any knowledge of golf knows, Woods was in a horrific auto accident last February.

Since then, it has been questionable whether he would ever play golf again.  Now we have a partial answer.  He can and will, but this week at least, Woods will need a cart because he can’t walk the whole course yet.

At the Hero World Challenge tournament, he explained how hard this recovery has been for him.

“With this right leg, that was — it’s hard to explain how difficult it has been just to be immobile for the three months, just lay there and I was just looking forward to getting outside. That was a goal of mine,” he explained.

The biggest question was could Woods ever hit the ball again, and, if so, would he be able to hit with authority.  Video of Woods on the range at the Hero showed that he could at least hit, but by his own admission, his distance leaves a lot to be desired.

He said his shots are so short that he said he was now a fan of the USGA’s Play it Forward theme.

“I don’t like the tees on the back,” he said.

Woods explained that he would have to prove to himself in practice that he was good enough to play a PGA Tour length and caliber course before he entered a tournament.

“We’re not going to be playing the par-3 course at Augusta to win the Masters….”  Tiger Woods

“I’ll chip and putt any of these guys, but the golf courses are longer than just a chip-and-putt course. We’re not going to be playing the par-3 course at Augusta to win the Masters, so I got to get a little bit bigger game than that,” he admitted.

Also, because of the state of his right leg, Woods has not made the decision that he can or wants to go through what it would take to play the PGA Tour again.

“I don’t have the endurance to stay out there for long periods of time, but the fact that I’m able to do it (hit balls) was exciting because there was a period of time where it didn’t look like I was going to be able to do it again,” he admitted.

Woods’ physical condition explains why the PNC Championship is perfect for the beginning of a comeback, if we can be so bold as to call it that.  For the PNC it’s all about the format, which is a two-person scramble.  Importantly, golf carts are available for participants if they want them, something that is not allowed at PGA Tour events.

To refresh memories on the format of the PNC, both members of the two-person teams hit drives on each hole, and the best drive is picked.  The non-Tour players, which are all ages, generally play from up tees which can provide some kind of advantage to the Tour players for second shots.

After the drives, the best shot is picked, and each golfer hits a second shot from that point. Once the green is reached, each golfer hits a putt from the same place and if neither putt goes in the hole, golfers pick the best location of their two putts for the next putt, and so forth, until the ball is holed.

According to Notah Begay, who was an on-course announcer for last year’s PNC,  Team Woods used Charlie’s tee shots in 2020 more often than not.

“He’s such a good ball-striker that they were taking advantage of his drives because they were much farther than where Tiger’s balls were off the tee,” Begay said about the play of Team Woods in 2020.

Now, a person would have to be slightly crazy to put money on Charlie and Tiger Woods to win this event.  But next year?  We just don’t know. Baby steps, as Woods likes to say.