Tiger Woods has set himself the target of playing one event per month in 2024 ahead of his much-anticipated return to the PGA Tour at this week’s Hero World Challenge.
Fifteen-time major winner Woods has not played competitively since the Masters in April, when he was forced to withdraw after reaggravating his plantar fasciitis in his right leg.
Woods has been affected by leg injuries since being involved in a serious car accident in February 2021, and he underwent the latest in a long series of surgeries to address arthritis in his ankle after the Masters.
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Having spent over six months on the sidelines, Woods will make his return when he tees off as tournament host in the Bahamas on Thursday, and he hopes a successful outing will set him up for more regular appearances next year.
Asked about his plans for 2024 at a press conference on Tuesday, Woods said: “I think the best scenario would be maybe a tournament a month.
“I think that’s realistic. We’d have to start maybe at Genesis, then something in March, maybe the Players… The biggest events are one per month, so it sets us up for that. Now, I need to get myself ready for all that, and I think this week is a big step in that direction.
“It’s the end of the year so this sets up expectations going into the following year, so it’s a nice landing spot and a great springboard into the following year.
“Then my foundation benefits from it, so there are so many positives to take from me being able to play in this tournament. Hopefully this will be a positive step into next year.”
Sights set on 2024. pic.twitter.com/swdI5kMHI2
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 28, 2023
Woods was in visible discomfort on his last outing and was also forced to withdraw from last year’s edition of the Hero World Challenge, but he is confident his ankle will hold up after his latest procedure.
“My game feels rusty. I haven’t played in a while,” he said. “I’m excited to compete and play and I’m just as curious as all of you to see what happens!
“I haven’t done it in a while, but I can tell you this; I don’t have any of the pain that I had at Augusta or before that in my ankle.
“Other parts are taking the brunt of the load so I’m a little more sore in some other areas, but the ankle is good. So that surgery was a success.
“I’m not concerned at all about walking it. As I said, I don’t have any pain in the ankle, that’s all gone, but it’s the other parts of my body; my knee hurts, my back… the force has to go somewhere else up the chain.”
Woods also opened up on his choice to undergo ankle fusion, rather than a full replacement, saying: “In the past couple of years I’ve had a number of surgeries. At some point, I was going to have to get my ankle replaced or fused.
“The doctors weren’t expecting me to put that much force into that ankle. The ankle just went [at the Masters], it was bone-on-bone, that’s why you saw me limping and not feeling very good.
“The only way to get that fixed was to get it replaced or fused, and we went with the fusion. The next part was the hard part, six months of doing nothing. That was the hard part.
“The first couple of months were really rough, and unfortunately I’ve had the experience, I’ve been through it before. I’m here on the good side now.”
Tiger didn’t hesitate. pic.twitter.com/3TSOg7ovdG
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 28, 2023
