Tiger Shares Surprising Comments on His Future

Despite the 24 world-class players teeing it up in The Presidents Cup, which runs Thursday through Sunday at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, Wednesday’s news was dominated by one man: Tiger Woods.

The former World No. 1 dominated the assistant captain’s news conference despite having not picked up a golf club in competition in over seven months. His journey back to competitive golf is one that he explained is not an easy one, nor is it the road that he 100-percent committed to traveling down. 

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig relayed some of Tiger’s interesting comments. 

Although he expressed optimism about a return to competitive golf, Tiger Woods also acknowledged it is possible he might not play again.

“I don’t know what my future holds for me,” Woods said during a news conference at Liberty National in advance of the Presidents Cup, where he is serving as an assistant to U.S. captain Steve Stricker.

In his first public comments since April fusion surgery — his fourth back surgery — Woods got the majority of questions in a news conference with assistant captains for both the U.S. and International teams.

Last week, Woods released a lengthy statement on his website in which he said he had begun hitting 60-yard shots but was not yet cleared to hit full shots due to the limitations on twisting recommended by his doctors.

October is the six-month mark, and Woods said that is roughly the point at which a good bit of the healing should be done.

“Overall, I’m very optimistic how I’m progressing,” the 14-time major champion said. “Like I said, the pain’s gone, but I don’t know what my golfing body is going to be like because I haven’t hit a golf shot yet.

“So that’s going to take time to figure that out and figure out what my capabilities are going forward. And there’s no rush.”

Woods, who has missed all of the major championships during the past two years, made an aborted return to competitive golf late last year and early in 2017, playing three tournaments. He withdrew after a first-round 77 at the Dubai Desert Classic on Feb. 2, where he failed to make a single birdie.

Although he said at the time that the score was not due to any back issues, Woods acknowledged Wednesday that he was in considerable pain that day and continued to be, as he hoped to make a return at the Masters before ultimately deciding on surgery.

“I’ve been out of the game for a while,” he said. “First things first: Get my health organized, make sure the pain goes way. Then, basically, just as I said, just keeping waiting for what my surgeon says. I’ve given you guys the updates on what I can do as I progress, and that’s all I’m doing.

“I’m still training. I’m getting stronger. But I certainly don’t have my golf muscles trained because obviously I’m not doing anything golf-related.”

Here’s a full cut-up of Woods’ comments from Wednesday’s press conference.

[ESPN.com]

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