Tiger Woods Will Play Again, But Not “Tournament Sharp” Yet

“It was quite painful throughout the end of the year, and hence, I had another procedure done to it to alleviate the pain I had going down my leg,” Woods explained at a press conference for the Hero World Challenge. “So, whether my commitment going forward is once a month, yeah, I could say that all over again, but I truly don't know.”

Often back issues that cause pain to shoot down the legs is called sciatica, and Penn Medicine says it’s characterized by “pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the leg… caused by injury to or pressure on the sciatic nerve.”  

The sciatic nerve begins in the lower back and runs down the back of each leg. But the treatment to eliminate the pain can be different for each person. In Woods’ case, he had surgery, and the jury is still out on how quickly he will recover. Even he doesn’t know.

“I'm not tournament sharp yet, no. I'm still not there,” he added. “These are 20 of the best players in the world, and I'm not sharp enough to compete against them at this level.”

To recap, the procedure Tiger Woods had is called a microdecompression. 

It was performed on his lumbar spine, which Cleveland Clinic explains as the five vertebrae located just above the tailbone. 

In an article on PGATour.com, it was explained that the surgery was for a “nerve impingement” in Woods' lower back. In other words, something in his lower back vertebrae was poking the nerve, and that was what caused the pain. Dr. Sheeraz Qureshi of the Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida, performed the procedure.

One has to assume that Woods' goals are to play in the Genesis, where he is tournament host, which is the middle of February. His goal after that, no doubt, is the Masters. It’s what he tried to do last year. However, it didn’t go as planned. 

Woods withdrew at the Genesis Invitational, and while he made the cut at the Masters, he finished last in the field, posting 16-over par. Surely, he wants to improve on those performances next year. While he’s not exempt for the U.S. Open, he can still play three majors and because of a special exemption given to him by the PGA Tour, he can play in the Signature Events if he wants to or is able to.   

While everyone waits to find out when Woods will tee it up next, he chomps at the bit because he wants to play.

“The fire still burns to compete. The difference is the recovery of the body to do it is not what it used to be,” he said adding that he still loves playing against the best in the world. “As far as the recovery process of going out there and doing it again and again and again and doing it consistently at a high level, I can't, for some reason. The body just won't recover like it used to. That's part of age and part of an athlete's journey.”

Next year there are eight Signature Events that Woods could play in if he is able and if he wants to participate. The Signature Events, plus three majors that he can play because he is exempt, would give him 11 tournaments in 2025. However, because he is still recovering from his most recent surgery, no one, including Woods, knows if that kind of a schedule would even be possible.