Tiger Woods speaks to reporters during the Hero World Challenge.
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After a few days of saying ‘we’ll see’ about competing this month, Tiger Woods is in. He and his son, Charlie, will compete together in next week’s PNC Championship, the family’s annual team event held in Orlando.
Woods made the first statement while broadcasting on Sunday at his tournament, the Hero World Challenge, where he was not playing. Woods admitted last week that he was “not sharp enough for the tournament,” which kept him out of the Bahamas.
“I’m not there anymore,” Woods said. “These are the best 20 players in the world and I’m not sharp enough to compete with them at this level. So when I’m ready to compete and play at this level, I’ll do it.”
For Woods, that’s the big difference: this level. Competing against top pros, some of whom are a fraction of his age, on a tour-level golf course is much different than a parent-child exhibition event in Florida. The event is technically a Champions Tour event, allowing Woods to ride in a golf cart, taking the load off his body. It was just three months ago that Woods went under the knife and underwent back surgery related to “neurological disturbances” in his lower back.
That September surgery followed a frustrating 2024 campaign that Woods ultimately called a “lost year” during his pre-Champions press conference. “I had to throw [this year] away,” said Woods, talking about the severe back pain he battled over the summer. Woods has dealt with nerve pain down his leg for parts of his career, much of which was relieved by his famous spinal surgery that allowed him to be healthy, compete in more than a few events a year and, ultimately, win the 2019 Kings.
Although much has changed in the five years since then, Woods is not going away. That’s clear from this PNC commitment, as well as his participation in an upcoming golf simulation league called TGL, which will have him playing on ESPN on Monday and Tuesday nights in January, February and March. The entire TGL schedule can be found here.
For Tiger and Charlie, it will be their fourth time competing together at the PNC, an old event that Woods says they look forward to every year. “[This event] it just deepens the bond between father and son,” Woods said in 2022. “It’s been amazing over the years to be able to share this stage and this situation with him.”
It’s a low-key return to golf in front of the public, but one that Woods usually does with a bigger smile than usual on his face. The PNC is a two-day affair, where teams consist of a grand champion (or Players) and a family member. Nelly Korda plays her father, Petr. Lee Trevino stars with his son, Daniel. Last year’s competition was won by Bernhard Langer and his son, Jason. Teams play a scramble format over 36 holes, with experts and novices often playing from different tee boxes, based on their ability. That said, as 15-year-old Charlie has matured in his skills over the years, he has regressed, sporting the same set of tees in 2023 as Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh and many of his father’s rivals from decades past.
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