An eventful year for Tiger still has intrigue remaining

ORLANDO, Fla. – Sunday marked the competitive end of one of the most eventful years of Tiger Woods’ career, and that’s saying something.

The 15-time major champion has rewritten the record books across the decades, and his on-course accomplishments have often been rivaled by his off-course issues. But many of those frenzied years struggle to keep pace with Tiger’s 2023.

The year began in predictable fashion with his first start at the Genesis Invitational. Since a horrific car crash in early 2021, Tiger has played just six events – including last month’s Hero World Challenge, which is an unofficial tournament – and when he arrived at Riviera in February there was a sense he’d turned a medical corner.

“I’m excited about being able to compete and play and play here at Riviera where basically it all started,” he said at the Genesis, where he made the cut and tied for 45^th.

That optimism was short-lived, however, and he withdrew from the Masters following rounds of 74-73, and faced with an extra-long Sunday into which Round 3 spilled. Two weeks later he again found himself on the surgeon’s table for a procedure on his right ankle to address post-traumatic arthritis that was caused by injuries suffered in the ’21 car wreck.

His manager, Mark Steinberg, told The Associated Press at the time there was “no timetable on this.”

It was a blow both to Tiger and the game, but not entirely unexpected given the extent of his injuries and his medical history. Even at 47 years old, a season spent rehabbing another injury wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.

But like everything else in the professional game that all changed on June 6 when the PGA Tour announced it had reached a framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to negotiate a deal that would see the Tour, the European circuit and LIV Golf bundled under a single, for-profit entity.

On Aug. 1, the Tour announced that Tiger had been named the policy board’s sixth player director. The significance of Tiger’s addition sent a clear message that the Tour’s leadership would be held accountable, and players would never again be left in the dark like they were with the framework agreement.

“My reaction was surprised as I’m sure a lot of the players were taken back by [the framework agreement],” he said last month at the Hero World Challenge. “So quickly without any input or any information about it, it was just thrown out there.

“I was very surprised that the process was what it was. We were very frustrated with what happened and we took steps going forward to ensure that the player involvement – we were not going to be left out of the process like we were. Part of that process was putting me on the board and accepting that position.”

It’s impossible to overstate how involved the policy board and specifically the player directors have been in the ongoing negotiations with both Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and additional private equity as the circuit moves toward a for-profit model, but last weekend is an example of how labor intensive the process has been.

On Dec. 7 Jon Rahm announced he was joining LIV Golf, ending weeks of speculation and sending a clear message to the Tour that PIF and the breakaway league were here to stay. Two days later the policy board held an emergency meeting and the next day, Sunday, the board announced it had unanimously agreed to narrow the search for a private equity partner to a single bid, an investment group led by Fenway Sports called Strategic Sports Group.

It’s been that type of year for professional golf and Tiger, who had never served on the policy board before now, and in the middle of those meetings and briefings he continued to work his way closer to another comeback.

At the Hero World Challenge, Tiger explained that as he moved toward a return there was a level of uncertainty.

“I don’t have any of the ankle pain that I had with the hardware that’s been placed in my foot, that’s all gone,” he said. “The other parts of my body, my knee hurts, my back. The forces go somewhere else. Just like when I had my back fused, the forces have to go somewhere. So it’s up the chain. As I said, I’m just as curious as all of you with what’s going to happen. I haven’t done this in a while.”

An 18^th-place finish in the 20-man field was at least encouraging on the physical front. For the first time since February, he was able to navigate 72 holes without any setbacks and he said his recovery went better than he’d expected.

This week’s PNC Championship wasn’t nearly the same challenge, with Tiger and his son, Charlie, playing the 36-hole scramble event in golf carts on Day 1. But he was just as pleased with how his body responded to the cold and wet conditions as he was with his play.

“I haven’t had the leg good enough where I’ve been able to compete and play a lot of rounds. I’ve had a lot of procedures over the years, and that’s just part of it,” Tiger said Sunday after he and Charlie tied for fifth place. “I know if I can practice, I know I can still do it. I can still hit the golf ball. I can still chip. I can still putt. Granted, it’s also putting it all together for 72 holes. That’s the challenging part of it.”

Two weeks shy of his 48^th birthday, it doesn’t seem likely things will get any slower for Tiger over the remainder of the year.

Following unsubstantiated reports on social media that Tiger’s deal with Nike is set to expire at the end of 2023, he was asked Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club for clarity on the topic and offered an aloof response. “I’m still wearing their product,” he said.

There’s also the Dec. 31 deadline for the Tour to close the deal with PIF, although multiple sources say that deadline could be pushed into next year. There’s certain to be more meetings, more memos and more mergers, which means one of the most eventful years of Tiger’s career isn’t even over.