Tiger Woods: When will we see him return to golf?

As soon as word got out that Tiger Woods had been in a car crash, people started to wonder if he could ever play on TOUR again.  Tiger, in an interview with Golf Digest, said that while his days of playing full time are over, he does hope to “click off a tournament here or there.”

For many fans, a statement like that coming directly from Tiger gives us some hope that we may see him return to action in 2022, but when exactly should we expect him to make a comeback?  What tournament makes the most sense for him to make his return?

With his expectation being that he may only play a few tournaments a year, it is unlikely that we see him in any of the non-major tournaments.  That has left many fans to expect that means we would likely see a comeback at a Major like The Masters’.

When most of us think of The Masters’ we often think back to one of about a million memories we have of Tiger at Augusta.

However, given that the PNC Championship was played in December and Tiger said he wasn’t “anywhere near ready” to compete at the Tour level, maybe anticipating a return in April is setting an unrealistic expectation.

There is still no telling that Tiger is even setting his eye on making a return to professional golf at any point this year yet, much less this early in the year.

If he does make a return to golf this year, the scenario that makes the most sense from the outside looking in would be for him to return at The Open being played at St. Andrews.   This would make sense for a few different reasons.  The first is that St. Andrews is considerably more forgiving and easier to walk than Augusta.

With his leg still visibly giving him trouble as a round progresses, as we saw in December, Augusta in April would likely be a bit hard to handle for a return.

Beyond being a more walkable course, the Old Course provides a few added benefits over Augusta as a potential stage for him to make his comeback.  Time is the biggest benefit, The Open isn’t being played until July, two months after The Masters’ allowing Tiger to prepare further.

Another factor to consider is that because of the tournament and location, The Open may provide a better stage, it is the birthplace of golf and the tournament isn’t played there every year like The Masters’ at Augusta.

This may be one of the last opportunities for him to play this tournament at this course, whereas Augusta will always be there.

Regardless of where he decides to play his first tournament back, fans will no doubt be excited to see the greatest of all time tee it up again.  Hopefully, he is feeling well enough to make a return sooner rather than later as the game just isn’t quite the same without him in the field.