Tiger Woods’ unexpected WD echoes the past, warns of the future

NASSAU, Bahamas — Wait a minute. That’s not how this was speculated to go.

This week in the Bahamas was speculated to be the starting of Tiger Woods’ subsequent chapter as a golfer. There have been a lot of chapters, of course. And a lot of beginnings. But the announcement that got here Monday afternoon — that Woods was a WD from his personal event as a result of plantar fasciitis — was decidedly not half of the plan.

This was speculated to be the starting of a Very Merry Tiger Season. Our expectations had been really comparatively modest: If all went nicely this week, Woods would present some promise on the course, stroll 72 holes with out problem and beat ultimately a couple of of his 19 opponents. He would look more healthy than in his most up-to-date look at St. Andrews, suggesting progress. Excitement would mount as to his subsequent 72-hole look. Would it come at Riviera? Sawgrass? Augusta?

This was additionally speculated to mark the starting of three occasions in three weeks headlined by Woods. The Hero, the Match and the PNC Championship are hardly main championships, however Woods creates his personal curiosity. The significance of the occasion follows the participant, on this case, slightly than the different method round. Woods is all-in on the TGL, too, a brand new tech-based golf league that can kick off on Monday nights in 2024. Even in the hours after Woods’ WD announcement, Woods welcomed Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas as opponents.

Taken all collectively, Woods’ buy-in to those occasions means one factor: He has been leaning right into a management position on the PGA Tour. These are all add-ons. They’re dietary supplements. But they’re designed to attract in a distinct viewers than week-in, week-out PGA Tour occasions whereas rewarding those self same gamers. They’re designed to develop the pie for the needle-movers who stay in the Tour institution’s ecosystem, half of its pitch to maintain professionals house versus defecting to LIV. Woods’ embrace of the Match — initially Phil Mickelson’s child — exhibits he’s right here to defend the wall. In his WD assertion, Woods stated he nonetheless intends to play each the Match and the PNC. Here’s hoping that’s true.

There’s a component of time-as-flat-circle to all of this. Woods has staged a number of comebacks at the Hero World Challenge; some have gone nicely and others haven’t.

In 2016 he returned to aggressive golf at Albany after greater than a yr away and confirmed a lot of recreation, injecting hope into the crowd. It would show to be false hope; he would play simply three aggressive rounds in the subsequent 12 months and mull the finish of his profession.

In 2017, on the different hand, Woods’ promising ninth-place end at the Hero proved to be the starting of a second act that would come with three wins in the two years that may observe, a very memorable Masters title amongst them. Last yr Woods once more made his public reappearance at the Hero, some 9 months post-car crash; he wasn’t taking part in that week however prompt he would play once more in some unspecified time in the future. He made good on that promise only a couple weeks later in a near-win at the PNC Championship and once more a number of months later in an inspiring made minimize at the Masters. In different phrases, we will get lulled into the familiarity of this cycle: Woods makes rather a lot of comebacks. Sometimes they work, typically they don’t. There can be extra in the future.

But there are different apparent reminders that issues have modified in ways in which gained’t be walked again. Last yr Woods tossed the soccer on the Albany vary with Bryson DeChambeau, now banned from the occasion as a result of his LIV defection. The occasion’s 2020 champion, Henrik Stenson, has departed for the identical vacation spot. So, too, has Patrick Reed, whose 2020 waste-bunker incident introduced controversy to an in any other case chummy get-together.

Also gone is Slugger White, who dominated on that two-stroke penalty. His acquainted determine can be absent from the Baha Mar, host lodge for a mixture of gamers, staffers, followers and media. The Baha Mar has some building happening in its recreation space: they seem like placing in pickleball courts. Everybody is attempting to adapt to a shifting world.

There’s additionally one thing horribly strange about Woods getting taken down by the scourge of plantar fasciitis. Woods’ accidents have, in the previous, been dramatic and horrific. Broken legs. Torn ACLs. Debilitating again ache. A shattered foot from a terrifying automotive crash. But plantar fasciitis? Any 45-something who spends time on their toes might be in the identical scenario. I’m positive that doesn’t make it harm any much less.

But now we’ve gone and gotten carried away. Another method of taking a look at that is as a giant bunch of nothing. Woods is wise to WD from a meaningless occasion. In the long term, you don’t do nicely betting in opposition to Alabama nor counting out Tiger Woods. And, to be clear, simply because this week hasn’t gone in accordance with plan doesn’t imply any of the relaxation of it gained’t come true. Woods might get sufficient relaxation that he can play subsequent week’s Match and the PNC the week after that. Both these occasions allow golf carts. They’re one and two rounds, respectively. And whereas Woods would have desperately needed to play this occasion, the place he serves as host, he might have been extra reluctant to skip both of the others. The Match hinges on his presence. And at the PNC, Woods’ son Charlie is relying on him to play.

But his WD additionally a reminder simply how fragile all of that is. The future of skilled golf’s institution lies on the shoulders, and again, and knees, and toes of a beat-up 46-year-old. There are extra entities than ever that demand his time and power and movie star and affect, however all of these add-ons are primarily based round one factor — Woods’ capability to play 72 holes of stroke-play golf with the greatest of ’em — that’s now not a assure.

Woods’ subsequent starting gained’t come at this yr’s Hero World Challenge. It might come subsequent week as an alternative. The PGA Tour and its followers can be holding their collective breath, at the same time as they know they shouldn’t.

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior author for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, the place he majored in English, and he’s the creator of 18 in America, which particulars the yr he spent as an 18-year-old dwelling from his automotive and taking part in a spherical of golf in each state.