Tiger Woods gives worrying health update in candid discussion on return to golf from sixth back surgery

Tiger Woods is going to be back on a golf course on Saturday but he doesn’t want anyone expecting much out of him at the PNC Championship in Florida.

Woods and his son Charlie, 15, are competing together in this weekend’s event with the legendary golfer back on the course for the first time since having his sixth back surgery in September.

But the 48-year-old insists he is simply there to compete with his son and is not up to any level to challenge just yet, saying recovery is harder than ever.

‘That was one of the reasons why I had the surgery done earlier, so that hopefully I could give myself the best chance to be with Charlie and be able to play,’ Woods said. 

‘I’m not competitive right now, but I just want to be able to have the experience again. This has always been one of the bigger highlights of the year for us as a family, and now we get to have that moment together again.

‘I’m not going to feel what I’m used to feeling. The recovery has gotten to be the hardest part. But over the course of rounds, weeks, months, it gets harder.’

Woods, 48, is on the comeback trail once again after a sixth back surgery in September 

The surgery was on his back, but Woods said his right leg, which was mangled in a February 2021 car crash outside Los Angeles, remains the biggest physical obstacle.

Even so, he chose to walk the pro-am on Friday instead of riding a cart, which is allowed for players because the tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour Champions.

And his swing looked good, too, not that Woods was accepting any compliments.

‘Rusty, very rusty,’ he said with a smile in an interview with The Golf Channel on Friday. ‘I don’t have my feels and my trajectory is off. But hey, this was a practice round.

‘I’m not at a competitive level. This is a scramble. I’m not competitively sharp.

‘I have fun. I love golf, I love the process of figuring it out. I’m certainly nowhere near as good as I used to be but I still enjoy hitting the ball out of the middle of the face. 

‘I enjoy the process of trying to get better. We are addicted to this game. It keeps bringing us back.’

Woods also revealed the support he gives his son during weekends like this, where the young teenager faces a lot of attention due to his famous father. 

Woods said recovery is harder than ever but added that he is ‘addicted’ to playing the game

‘I was always reminding him, “Just be you.” Charlie is Charlie. Yes, he´s my son. He´s going to have my last name and it´s going to be part of his core,’ Woods said. 

‘But I just want him to be just himself and be his own person. That´s what we can only do

‘I always encourage it, for him to carve his own name, carve his own path and have his own journey. 

‘I think he’s doing a great job. In this day and age where everyone is basically media, with all the phones, being constantly filmed and constantly people watching, that´s just part of his generation, and that´s part of the world that he has to maneuver through.’

After this weekend, Woods’ focus turns to the January launch of his ‘TGL’ indoor golf league, which he helped devise alongside Rory McIlroy.