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Golf followers must wait just a few extra weeks to observe Tiger Woods play once more.
The 15-time main champion was forced to pull out of this week’s Hero World Challenge, a event he hosts within the Bahamas, due to plantar fasciitis in his proper foot.
Woods stated docs instructed him that the situation is said to extreme accidents he suffered to his proper leg and foot in a automobile wreck exterior Los Angeles in February 2021. Woods additionally revealed that he had two extra surgical procedures in the course of the previous 12 months.
Woods, 46, stated he nonetheless deliberate to play in two occasions subsequent month as a result of he can use a cart. Woods and world No. 1 golfer Rory McIlroy will battle Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas within the newest version of The Match, which is scheduled to be performed on Dec. 10 at Pelican Golf Membership exterior Tampa, Florida.
Woods is also slated to play with his son, Charlie, within the PNC Championship in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 17-18.
On Tuesday, Woods met the media for the primary time for the reason that one hundred and fiftieth Open Championship at St. Andrews in July. He spoke on a plethora of subjects, together with his well being, future plans, the PGA Tour’s ongoing battle with LIV Golf and different topics throughout a 30-minute information convention within the Bahamas.
Have been you shocked you were not capable of play within the Hero World Problem this week?
WOODS: Properly, as I used to be ramping up and needed to stroll extra, the more serious it obtained. So whenever you get plantar fasciitis, the worst factor you are able to do is stroll, and I used to be strolling an increasing number of and extra, making an attempt to get my legs prepared for this occasion, and I simply stored making it worse. So [I] needed to shut it down and, sadly, be the host of the occasion and Ranger Rick out right here. So I can try this.
What’s your aim for subsequent 12 months by way of what number of tournaments you need to play?
WOODS: The aim is to play simply the most important championships and perhaps one or two extra. That is it. I imply, bodily, that is all I can do. I instructed you that [at] the start of this 12 months, too. I imply, I haven’t got a lot left on this leg, so gear up for the most important ones and hopefully, you realize, lightning catches in a bottle and I am up there in competition with an opportunity to win. Hopefully, I bear in mind how to do this. However once more, giving myself an opportunity to get on the market once more. As I stated, I did not count on to play three majors this 12 months. We have been hoping for simply the British Open, however I used to be capable of get two extra there, in order that was a giant constructive.
You should have labored extremely exhausting to get to the purpose the place you could possibly virtually play right here. I do know you may’t play. Is there ever part of you that thinks, “Why maintain going? Why maintain making an attempt this? I’ve obtained nothing else to show.”
WOODS: Properly, I really like competing. , I really like sports activities. I have been taking part in it mainly all my life. And you realize, really, I have been a professional for greater than half my life. So If you happen to have a look at it in these phrases, you realize, I have been part of this sport and I’ve beloved it. It is simply unlucky I am not capable of do the issues that I really feel mentally I can do — the physique simply form of rejects it. Once I was at house, I used to be taking pictures 4, 5, 6, 7 underneath par prefer it was nothing, however I used to be in a cart. Now you add in strolling and that goes away. So I must get to that time the place I can really stroll round and play that approach, like all of you guys can. I am not ready to do this proper now.
Does the most recent setback imply you’ve got regressed in your comeback?
WOODS: It will take most likely, you realize, a month or two of relaxation. But additionally, it was the ramping-up course of that did it. It is a balancing act, proper? How exhausting do you push it to make progress whereas not pushing it too exhausting to go off the sting and also you set your self again two, three days, and that is been the balancing act the entire 12 months. And making an attempt to do this, prepare for this occasion, I did quite a lot of seashore walks making an attempt to simulate the sand out right here and my foot simply didn’t like that very a lot.
Would you ever think about using a golf cart in a PGA Tour occasion?
WOODS: On the PGA Tour? No. On the sanctioned occasions the place it is allowed, sure, which is the Champions Tour, PNC, issues of that nature. My teammate was Casey Martin, OK, and what he did with the ADA (Individuals with Disabilities Act), I voted in opposition to it. I feel [walking] is an integral a part of the sport at our degree and I’ll by no means take a golf cart till it is sanctioned. It is sanctioned on the Champions Tour and the PNC is a part of that. So far as an everyday occasion, no, I’d by no means try this.
Rory McIlroy stated in a printed report final week that he gave you COVID-19 shortly earlier than the Open Championship at St. Andrews. Have been you ever really examined?
WOODS: Yeah, I obtained examined. I used to be at all times destructive. I used to be feeling underneath the climate, sure, wasn’t feeling nice the entire week, however I by no means obtained a constructive check.
If you happen to have been to return a 12 months in the past and look into the longer term, what sort of surprises you essentially the most, or what did not you see coming?
WOODS: “Personally, for me, I hoped to perhaps play the British Open [but] ended up taking part in three majors, which isn’t too unhealthy, all issues thought of. I wasn’t anticipating to have just a few extra procedures due to taking part in, however that is simply the way in which it goes. So far as the golf ecosystem, I do not suppose any of us would have foreseen it being as difficult as it’s and convoluted because it has turn out to be, and the animosity from each side. I do not suppose we might’ve seen {that a} 12 months in the past.
Do you foresee a day when the PGA Tour and LIV Golf can coexist within the golf ecosystem?
WOODS: There’s a chance on the market if each organizations put a keep on their litigation, however that is the issue: They have to place a keep on it. And whether or not or not they try this or not, there is not any willingness to barter if in case you have a litigation in opposition to you. So in the event that they each have a keep after which have a break after which they’ll meet and determine one thing out, then perhaps there’s something available. However I feel [LIV Golf CEO and commissioner] Greg [Norman] has to go, to begin with, after which, clearly, litigation in opposition to us after which our countersuit in opposition to them, these would then must be at a keep as effectively. So then we are able to speak, we are able to all speak freely.
Proper now as it’s, not proper now, not with their management, not with Greg there and his animosity in direction of the tour itself. I do not see that taking place. As Rory stated and I stated it as effectively, I feel Greg’s obtained to depart after which we are able to finally, hopefully, have a keep between the 2 lawsuits and determine one thing out. However why would you modify something in the event you’ve obtained a lawsuit in opposition to you? They sued us first.
Do the perimeters want to come back to some kind of compromise quickly?
WOODS: Yeah, I do not know whether or not it may be me, Rory or the tour or different gamers being, I would not essentially say a peacemaker, however I simply suppose that there is a window of alternative for us from each excursions to determine this out shortly. However I feel that window’s closing simply because the majors are arising now and they are going to have their very own standards for the majors. But when they’ll do it rapidly earlier than that … however once more, that goes again to LIV and their lawsuit. They’re suing us first and we countersued them, so that they must again off the desk, they are going to again off the desk after which we’ll have a spot to speak. However their management has to alter as effectively. If that does not, then I feel it may proceed to go down the trail that it is going proper now.
You and Rory McIlroy spoke to a gaggle of PGA Tour gamers earlier than the BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, in August. Why do you suppose it was essential so that you can be in that assembly and what was your message to the opposite gamers?
WOODS: Properly, the message is that we won’t compete greenback for greenback with [Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund], simply we bodily cannot try this. However what we are able to do is speak about higher alternatives for youthful gamers getting onto the tour, what it means to play the tour, how essential it’s, how essential it’s to have a legacy, [to] have the ability to win main championships.
As of proper now, we do not know the place the most important championships stand on this. So in the event you’re a tour participant, you already know that you just’re within the main championships, you are within the high 50, so, OK, that is a assure, however the different gamers do not. They’re taking an opportunity of by no means ever, ever getting an opportunity to play in main championships. And so the place does your legacy stand there? , I went on the [LIV] tour and made some huge cash, however I by no means obtained to win any tournaments which are of worth that may put me within the Corridor of Fame and issues of that nature.
So sure, there was quite a lot of speak of that and methods wherein we are able to improve purses, reward gamers which are extra seen than others that drive the [PGA] tour, reward them, and in addition give higher entry to the tour at totally different ages and in numerous methods than we ever have previously. So It was an extended assembly, quite a lot of totally different choices have been put about and all of us had to consider it, sit again. Then we have had many subsequent conferences, FaceTime conferences, making an attempt to determine it out and make it higher and in addition labored with the tour to attempt to make it higher as effectively.
Rory has been as outspoken as you could have been about LIV Golf. What do you make of his management on the PGA Tour?
WOODS: What Rory has stated and executed are what leaders do. Rory is a real chief out right here on tour. The truth that he is really capable of get the issues he stated out within the public eye, be so clear-minded with it and so eloquent with it; in the meantime, go on the market and win golf tournaments on high of that, individuals don’t know how exhausting that’s to do, to have the ability to separate these two issues. However he is been incredible. He is an awesome chief in our calls we make, and he is an awesome chief with all of the gamers out right here. Everybody respects him and so they respect him as a result of not simply his ballstriking, his driving, however the particular person he’s.
How has the specter of LIV Golf modified the way in which the PGA Tour works?
WOODS: There’s been some ebb and move, some give-and-take from gamers and the commissioners and their employees. I feel this 12 months extra so than some other time that we have had the openness to have the ability to speak to our commissioner [Jay Monahan] and say, “These are issues that we need to get higher on the tour and this is a listing of them,” and precedence, too. Jay sat by quite a lot of these conferences, quite a lot of the convention calls and with Rory and I speaking to him too as effectively.
I feel we made some nice adjustments, however how can we additionally replenish gamers which have left? That is clearly giving extra alternatives for gamers which are coming into the sport which are youthful, collegiate or newbie, extra entry to it. The sport has gotten youthful, interval. I imply, guys are profitable majors of their mid-to-early 20s. But additionally we need to get youthful youngsters coming in right here and taking part in the sport of golf and experiencing the tour and experiencing what it is prefer to play in main championships and hopefully win them.
Phil Mickelson took quite a lot of warmth for complaining concerning the PGA Tour. With every thing that has modified on tour, together with elevated purses, do you suppose Mickelson is owed an apology?
WOODS: No, completely not, no. We took out an unlimited mortgage in the course of the pandemic wherein if we had one other 12 months of the pandemic, our tour would solely be sustained for an additional 12 months. We took out an unlimited mortgage. It labored, it paid off in our profit, therefore we have been ready to make use of that cash to make the will increase that we have made.
The place do you see the battle with LIV Golf ending up?
WOODS: We do not know. Nobody is aware of. Proper now, there’s quite a lot of animosity, particularly from their management. And so they need to be a validated tour with world rating factors and so they’re shopping for up excursions world wide. I do not know what their finish recreation is. It is perhaps simply being an official member of the golf ecosystem and being acknowledged with world rating factors. I feel that is what their meant aim is.
, they’ve spent most likely near $2 billion this 12 months. Who’s to say they can not spend $4 [billion] or $5 billion subsequent 12 months? We simply do not know. It is an countless pit of cash. However that does not essentially create legacies both. You need to examine your self to [Ben] Hogan, you need to examine your self to [Sam] Snead, you need to examine your self to [Jack] Nicklaus. You may’t try this over there, however you may on this tour.
Is the continuing animosity between the excursions good for golf?
WOODS: As I stated, I feel it has to start out with management on their aspect. Understanding what is going on proper now, it is not in the perfect match or future for the entire recreation of golf. Now, what’s the easiest way for our recreation to develop? It isn’t this fashion. However granted, it is advisable have the 2 our bodies come collectively. If one aspect has a lot animosity, somebody making an attempt to destroy our tour, then how do you’re employed with that?
You’ve got won the Player Impact Program two years in a row, even after taking part in solely 9 rounds in three majors this previous season. What are your ideas on PIP?
WOODS: Every little thing evolves. I imply, have a look at the FedEx [Cup] iterations we have had. One of many years Vijay [Singh] did not even must tee it up. He did not even have to indicate up for the final event, our season-ending occasion, and he would’ve received the FedEx Cup. We have had totally different iterations of the FedEx Cup and there is not any distinction with the PIP. I am positive we’ll have totally different iterations of that going ahead as effectively. There is no such thing as a excellent system. You need individuals who drive the tour, who’re most seen, and the people who watch golf due to these sure gamers [to] be rewarded for it. We have not discovered the right mannequin for that but and hopefully we do someday quickly. We’re nonetheless engaged on it.
LIV Golf is trying to get recognition from the Official World Golf Rating. What are your ideas on the present OWGR?
WOODS: Yeah, OWGR, it is a flawed system. That is one thing all of us right here acknowledge. The sector at [the DP World Tour Championship at] Dubai obtained much less factors than [the RSM Classic at] Sea Island and extra of the highest gamers have been there in Dubai, so clearly there is a flawed system. How do you repair it? , these are conferences we will must have. We’ll must have it with [the OWGR] committee and because the most important excursions which are concerned in it. By some means provide you with a greater system than is in place now. I bear in mind once I had a giant lead in my profession, I did not must play a single event the following 12 months and I nonetheless can be ranked No. 1. We modified that system then. So it has been modified previously, and I am positive this will probably be modified hopefully quickly.
What is going to you bear in mind concerning the previous 12 months in males’s skilled golf?
WOODS: Properly, I feel this complete 12 months, it is a 12 months we did not count on to have occurred — the animosity, the angst after which the gamers leaving, after which the way in which they confirmed their disregard or disrespect to the tour that helped them get to that time. A number of issues I actually do not like about it and there is sure gamers which are very up entrance with it and have declared it, and I respect them for that. However there’s additionally a flip aspect to that, too, that I assumed was slightly bit on the tasteless aspect.
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