With Tiger Woods skipping next week’s Wells Fargo Championship, speculation that stemmed from a GOLFTV video of Woods meeting his exclusive content partners at their Florida headquarters, has gained more momentum.
In the video, which was posted to Twitter on Thursday, April 25, shows Woods walking from his car into a studio where he is greeted with an ovation from the GOLFTV team. Woods can be seen walking somewhat gingerly, which has fired up the rumor mill.
A day later when Woods failed to commit to play in Charlotte by the 5 p.m. deadline, worried fans began to diagnose the 15-time major champion based upon a 35-second video.
The champ is here… pic.twitter.com/72k3Y6aUSV
— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) April 25, 2019
Speaking to ESPN.com’s Bob Harig, Woods’ agent put those injury rumors to bed, citing simply a rusty golf game as the reason Woods wouldn’t be teeing it up prior to next month’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.
“Nobody should lose their mind over this,” Steinberg said. “He’s still digesting and appreciating what happened two weeks ago. Honestly, he’s just not ready to play right now.
“Look back at the transcripts from late last year and early this year, he’s not going to play as much. He’s just going to be smart about it. There’s a huge difference between being hurt and being sore. He’s sore after most tournaments he plays. He requires some downtime and doesn’t feel he has enough time to get ready for next week. And he regrets that he’s not going to be there.”
To Steinberg’s point, Woods has been consistent in his talking points related to his scaled-back schedule in 2019. He reiterated that point in his champion’s press conference following the win at Augusta National.
“I played a little bit too much last year because I kept trying to qualify for World Golf Championship events and the playoffs,” he said. “The playing schedule doesn’t change; I’m going to play a little bit less than I did last year. Again, just play in the tournaments I do play in, I’ll be fully invested and committed to playing and trying to win.”
