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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
Tiger Woods isn’t playing in this week’s Hero World Challenge, an unofficial tournament he hosts in the Bahamas.
But the 15-time major champion will still be involved in the event, and he met with the media Tuesday during a pre-tournament news conference. It was the first time Woods had met with reporters since he missed the cut at the Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland in July.
Woods addressed a number of topics, including his health, his potential playing schedule for 2025, golfers being compensated to compete in the upcoming Ryder Cup and the PGA Tour’s ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Tiger’s health
Woods isn’t part of the 20-man field that will compete this week at Albany golf club. Last year, Woods returned from a layoff of more than seven months to finish 18th at even par, 20 strokes behind winner Scottie Scheffler.
In 2023, Tiger was coming back from surgery to address post-traumatic arthritis in his right foot and ankle, which was caused by injuries he sustained in a car wreck in February 2021.
This time, he’s recovering from microdecompression surgery in September to alleviate pain from nerve impingement in his lower back.
“I’m not physically ready yet to compete at this level,” Woods said. “The times I have come back here, I was ready to start competing and playing again. Unfortunately, not this time. I still need to keep training to give myself the best chance going into next year and the events ahead.”
Woods, 48, didn’t indicate Tuesday when he planned to return to competitive play, saying, “I truly don’t know.”
In the past, he competed with his son, Charlie, in the PNC Championship, which will take place in Orlando, Florida, in two weeks. In that event, Tiger would be able to use a cart.
Otherwise, golf fans might not see Woods play again until the Genesis Invitational, which he hosts Feb. 13-16 at Riviera Country Club outside Los Angeles, or the Masters, the first major of the season, April 10-13 at Augusta National Golf Club.
Woods said his back condition caused pain in his leg that became progressively worse this past season. He made only five starts on tour in 2024. He missed three cuts and withdrew from the Genesis Invitational because of illness.
“I had to toss [the season] away, and I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be and I didn’t play as much as I needed to going into the major championships, and I didn’t play well at them,” Woods said. “Hopefully, next year will be better. I’ll be physically stronger and better. I know the procedure helped, and hopefully that I can then build upon that.”
Given that Woods has undergone myriad back surgeries in the past, he was aware of the long recovery he faced this time.
“I know what to expect coming out of it,” Woods said. “The relief I had, I didn’t have a spasm, I didn’t have the nerve pain, so that was fantastic. But I also understood that I still have a long road ahead of me of rehab and recovery. I wish I hadn’t known this, but I know it very well and I know the process, I know how long it’s going to take.
“We’ll continue doing all the gym work and continue doing all the protocols, and eventually it will lead to something where I can compete again.”
PGA Tour’s potential deal with the Public Investment Fund
It has been nearly a year since the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with the DP World Tour and the PIF expired on Dec. 31, 2023.
There have been signs of progress in recent months, including a well-publicized meeting between the sides in New York in September, and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan playing golf with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship pro-am in early October.
As a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board and vice chair of the PGA Tour Enterprises board, Woods has been involved in negotiations with the PIF about a potential investment of more than $1 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the tour’s for-profit wing.
On Tuesday, Woods indicated that a deal hasn’t been reached yet, admitting that “all of us who have been a part of this process would have thought it would have happened quicker than this.”
Woods acknowledged that any agreement between the sides will be heavily scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. It would likely be reviewed by antitrust regulators in Europe as well.
“Even if we had gotten a deal done by now, it’s still in the DOJ’s hands, but we wish we would have had something more concrete and further along than we are right now,” Woods said. “But things are very fluid, we’re still working through it, it’s happening daily. From a policy board standpoint or from an Enterprise standpoint, things are moving and they’re constructive. But yes, definitely moving.”
Although the sides seem to be aligned on many issues, sources told ESPN on Tuesday that team golf’s position in the future ecosystem of the sport and exactly how LIV golfers will return to the PGA Tour remain sticking points.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the PIF had separate negotiations with the DP World Tour about an alliance that would give LIV Golf players access to DP World Tour events. In exchange, the PIF would make a financial investment in the European tour.
“This has been a very difficult time in the game of golf,” Woods said. “I think that a lot of it has been distractions on the beauty of the game of golf, and obviously we’re trying to unify that and give the fans the best experience we know we can give them.”
In the same news conference Tuesday, Pawan Munjal, CEO of Hero MotoCorp, which sponsors Woods’ tournament in the Bahamas, expressed frustration that the sides haven’t yet struck a deal.
“Very simply put, the game is not benefiting, the players are not benefiting,” Munjal said. “Maybe some on tour. What has to happen is everyone gets back together and the game moves on, the players move on, the sponsors move on. There is confusion for the sponsors as well right now, what to do, where to go, how to look at the future. The future is uncertain, which is not a good thing.”
Ryder Cup compensation
Last month, the Telegraph of London reported that U.S. golfers would be paid $400,000 to compete in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage State Park in New York in September 2025.
The PGA of America currently gives each American golfer $200,000 to distribute to the charity of their choice. The Telegraph didn’t say whether the $400,000 stipend would go to the players or charity.
Woods was involved in similar discussions with the PGA of America before the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Woods said he wouldn’t have a problem if golfers were paid for competing in the Ryder Cup, as long as the money went to charity.
“We didn’t want to get paid [in 1999], we wanted to give more money to charity, and the media turned it around against us and said we want to get paid,” Woods said. “No, the Ryder Cup itself makes so much money, why can’t we allocate it to various charities? And what’s wrong with each player, 12 players getting a million dollars and the ability to divvy out to amazing charities that they’re involved in that they can help out?
“It’s their hometowns, where they’re from, all the different junior golf associations or endeavors that the members are involved in. It’s never really been about getting paid; it’s how can we allocate funds to help our sport or help things that we believe in back home, because it’s so hard to get onto that team, there’s only 12 guys. What’s wrong with being able to allocate more funds?”
After the Telegraph report, European captain Luke Donald consulted many of his team’s golfers about whether they should be paid. Rory McIlroy said the consensus was to donate the money back to the DP World Tour.
“It’s one week where you play for more than yourself,” Donald told the Telegraph. “It’s … not about money or points, it’s about coming together as a team and the fans feed off that — it’s all passion. I don’t think we should ever get paid.”
Regardless of the European team’s feelings toward compensation, Woods said he hoped American golfers would get $5 million each and donate it to charity.
“That’s fine, that’s their right to say that,” Woods said. “I just think that the event is so big that I think that we can give so much money to different charities, and I’ve said that since ’99 when we had the Brookline negotiations. If the Europeans want to pay to be in the Ryder Cup, that’s their decision to do that, that’s their team. I know when it’s on European soil that it subsidizes most of their tour, so it is a big event for the European Tour, and if they want to pay to play in it, so be it.”