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Tiger Shows Glimpse of Past

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DUBLIN, OHIO – (Wire Service Report) – Tiger Woods once again showed a glimpse that he may someday win another PGA Tournament. Then he immediately displayed the type of inconsistency that has prolonged his current drought.

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Tiger Woods in R3 at The Memorial

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Woods shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio., but left the course with a feeling he could have done better. His 9-under 207 through three rounds felt highly disappointing to Woods.

“I was at 11 under par and I wasted a bunch of shots the past two days,” Woods told reporters. “You do the math.”

The sour feeling was prompted by going from a share for the lead to standing at least four shots back with dozens of golfers still on the course.

“For most of the day, I was pretty darn good,” Woods said.

Woods moved into a tie for the lead with a 14-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole and then proceeded to stumble down the stretch. He three-putted two of the final three holes — bogeying the par-3 16 and the par-4 18 — to slip to 9-under as he angrily walked off the course. Most frustrating to Woods was having the 3-foot putt on 18 bounce off the cup and leaving a tap-in for bogey.

“I hit a lot of good putts today,” Woods said. “I just didn’t do that at the end.”

Woods is a five-time winner of the Memorial, with his most recent victory coming in 2012. He has 79 PGA Tour wins but the last win came at the Bridgestone Invitational in 2013. Woods shot an opening-round 72 and followed up Friday with a stellar 67. He had pars on each of the first four holes on Saturday before posting an eagle on the 527-yard, par-5 fifth hole. He birdied three of the next four holes to record a 31 on the front nine. He parred the next five holes before collecting the birdie on 15. He suffered a setback with the bogey en route to the poor closing stretch.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy put together a strong effort with an 8-under 64. McIlroy also eagled the fifth hole and collected six birdies. McIlroy is at 8-under 208 through three rounds.

–Field Level Media

Paul Casey Edges Tiger in Valspar

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TAMPA – (Staff Report) – Paul Casey shot a blistering 65 to gain the win while Tiger Woods posted an impressive 70 to close four solid rounds of golf in the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort Copperhead course outside of Tampa, Florida.

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Paul Casey

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Casey finished at (-10) while Woods and Patrick Reed each finished a stroke back. Casey was rewarded with a $1,170,000 paycheck while Woods and Reed each won  a hefty $562K as second place finishers in the tune-up stretch for The Masters, coming in April.

PGA Tour: At a Glance

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PGA Tour: Farmer’s Insurance Open, Torrey Pines (Southern California).

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Tiger Woods at the Farmer’s Insurance Open

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TV: Saturday 2:00-3:30pm ET on Golf Channel; 4:00-7:00pm ET on CBS Sports. PGA Live (Online) – 11:30am-7:00pm.

Radio: PGA Tour Radio (Sirius/XM Radio and Streaming Online at PGA Tour (dot) com – 2:00-7:00pm ET.

Weekend Preview: Tiger Woods made a birdie putt on the final hole Friday to make the cut at Torrey Pines, the first time in 889 days he’s playing on moving day in a Tour event. Ryan Palmer (-11) and Jon Rahm (-10) are leading after two rounds.

 

PGA Tour: Fowler Wins Hero World

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NEW PROVIDENCE – The BAHAMAS – (Special to Digital Sports Desk by The Sports Xchange) – More than two years had passed since Tiger Woods completed his last tournament on a golf course before Sunday.

Woods, playing competitively for the first time since last February in Dubai, carded a final-round 4-under-par 68 to finish tied for ninth place at 8-under 280 in the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club in New Province, The Bahamas.

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Ricky Fowler

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Rickie Fowler closed with a blistering 61 to finish at 18-under 270 for the weekend to claim the Hero World Challenge title. Fowler, ranked No. 9 in the world, had trailed 54-hole leader Charley Hoffman by seven strokes entering the day.

Woods, the former longtime world No. 1 and 14-time major champion, had not officially logged four competitive rounds since the Wyndham Championship on Aug. 20-23, 2015.

“I think I competed well,” Woods told ESPN after logging his third sub-par round of the weekend. “I really drove the ball a lot better than I was thinking, especially the distance-wise.”

Woods eagled the par-4, 350-yard seventh hole and mixed six birdies with two bogeys and a double bogey in his closing round. He opened the event with a 69 and went on to cap his weekend at 68-75-68.

“Man, I hit a lot of good long irons and fairway woods from the fairway, and for the majority of the week I really putted well,” Woods said. “… I hit just a boatload of good putts.”

As far as his next tournament is concerned, Woods has not yet made a public commitment. He told reporters he experienced “no pain” over the weekend and believes he still has a “bright future” on the course.

Woods underwent a fourth back surgery last April and made headlines when he was arrested near his Jupiter, Fla. home for driving under the influence.

Toxicology reports revealed a plethora of prescription drugs in his system at the time of the arrest, including pain killers.

Fowler sprinkled 11 birdies — including seven straight from Nos. 1-7 — in his bogey-free round, leading him to victory in the 18-player field.

Hoffman closed with a 72 to finish second at 274. England’s Tommy Fleetwood (276), world No. 2 Jordan Spieth (276) and world No. 5 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (277), Patrick Reed (277) and Olympic champion and world No. 6 Justin Rose of England (277) rounded out the top five.

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson finished in a tie for 14th at 288 after a final-round 72. FedExCup champion and world No. 3 Justin Thomas finished in solo 11th at 281

Tiger Back in Action, Shoots 69

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NEW PROVIDENCE, BAHAMAS – (Special to Digital Sports Desk by The Sports Xchange) – Tiger Woods’ return went about as well as he could have hoped. Playing in his first competitive tournament since the Dubai Desert Classic last February, Woods carded a 3-under-par 69 Thursday in the opening round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Course in The Bahamas.

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Tiger Woods

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Woods had five birdies against two bogeys during the round.

“I thought it was great,” Woods told the PGA Tour’s website after his round. “To come out here and score like I did, it was nice.”

The former longtime world No. 1 and 14-time major champion shot a 1-under 35 on the front nine with a birdies at the par-5, 572-yard No. 3 and par-3, 216-yard No. 8 holes opposite a bogey at No. 9.

Woods opened the back nine with a birdie at No. 10 and rolled in back-to-back birdies at Nos. 13-14 before bogeying No. 15. He finished with three straight pars, placing him three shots behind leader Tommy Fleetwood of England.

“I didn’t know what I could do,” Woods said in an interview with Golf Channel. “I’ve been playing golf, I’ve been playing a lot of holes at home, but it’s still different when you’ve got to tee it up in a tournament.

“I had a lot of adrenaline going there. I was hitting balls a little bit longer than I normally do and had to dial it back a little bit. Those are the internal struggles that I just haven’t been through as a player in a while.”

Woods, now ranked 1,199th in the world, shot an opening-round 77 before withdrawing in Dubai in his most-recent appearance. He underwent his fourth back surgery since 2014 last April.

On May 29, 2017, Woods was arrested near his Jupiter, Fla. home for driving under the influence. It was later revealed he had a plethora of drugs in his system, including prescription pain killers.

Woods pled guilty to reckless driving on Oct. 27 and received one year of probation, a $250 fine, 50 hours of community service and regular drug testing. A violation of his probation would result in a 90-day jail sentence and a $500 fine.

Fleetwood, the world No. 18, is alone atop the leaderboard after his day-one 66, which included six birdies and no bogeys.

Americans Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar are both one shot back of Fleetwood. Fowler, the world No. 9, dropped seven birdies, but also carded two bogeys. The 15th-ranked Kuchar played bogey-free with five birdies.

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson headlines a four-way tie for fourth with second-ranked Jordan Spieth, Olympic champion Justin Rose of England and Kevin Chappell at 68.

Woods, defending FedExCup champion Justin Thomas, Charley Hoffman and Italy’s Francesco Molinari are tied for eighth in the 18-player field

TIGER’S BACK!

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – (Special to Digital Sports Desk by The Sports Xchange) – Seventeen of the world’s best golfers will be among the field this week at the PGA Tour’s 19th Annual Hero World Challenge in New Providence, The Bahamas.

All the talk around the golf world, however, has been about the 18th member of the roster of players for this tournament, one Eldrick “Tiger” Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all time.

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Tiger Woods

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Woods is the host of this select $3.5 million event but that’s not what’s been causing all the ruckus. What’s got folks excited is that Woods will play in the tournament, marking his first official competition on Tour since a missed cut last January in the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open.

The fact that Woods is back and playing without pain is huge in the golf world. Nothing moves the interest meter for the sport more than when Woods plays. How he fares when the tournament tees off for 72 holes of competition beginning Thursday at the 7,309-yard Albany course is not really as important as the fact that he’s actually playing and competing.

Do people really expect Woods to contend for the $1 million that goes to the winner here? That might be unrealistic. Woods said Tuesday that he’s just happy to be on the course and testing his rebuilt game against the world’s top players and hoping to bring some of the mojo he’s built in practice rounds and fun competitions away from the spotlight into play this week.

“To come out here and be able to do what I’ve been doing the last few weeks with the guys, it’s been a lot of fun,” Woods said after his Tuesday practice round.

“I played some great rounds with the guys at home. They’ve been fantastic, to be honest with you, because I’ve gotten to know a lot of them through the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cups and I’ve really become very close with a few of them. It was fun to be able to do that again, which I hadn’t done in years.”

Woods played in this event last year as well, leading the field in birdies on the way to a 15th place finish that created hope that he would be able to return to the Tour full time. He then hurt his back playing in a European Tour event in Dubai and tried to return in San Diego before deciding on additional back surgery.
He says that things are different this time around.

“Last year I was still struggling with a little bit of pain,” Woods explained. “I was able to hit some good shots, able to play, but in looking back on it now, I look on it as playing in slow-mo but it was as hard as I could hit it. I didn’t realize how bad my back had become and how much I was flinching and just how slow I was.

“I didn’t realize it because it’s been a slow degrading process. I thought I had some speed, thought I was playing halfway decent, shot some good scores, but now I’ve looked back on it and man, I didn’t even have much at all.”

This year’s participants include Daniel Berger, Kevin Chappell, Race to Dubai champion Tommy Fleetwood of England, Rickie Fowler, Charley Hoffman, Dustin Johnson, Kevin Kisner, U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar, defending champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Francesco Molinari of Italy, Alex Noren of Sweden, Patrick Reed, Olympic gold medal winner Justin Rose of England, British Open titlist Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson of Sweden, and FedEx Cup champion Justin Thomas, the reigning player of the year.

In all, seven of the 18 players have won major championships. Matsuyama will attempt to join Woods (2006-07) as the only players to win the Hero World Challenge in back-to-back seasons.

“I’m glad to be here,” Thomas said. “Obviously you’re doing something right if you’re playing in this tournament in this part of the year. Anytime you’re in the Bahamas it’s usually a good time, so looking forward to hopefully a good week.”

Woods’ enthusiasm about his return is palpable and shared with the rest of the field.

“He looks good, and just his demeanor and how positive and upbeat he sounds when he talks about how he feels with his golf game is more important than anything,” Thomas said of Woods. “The fact that he can just go through life let alone golf pain free is great for us all to hear, you know? You don’t want to see any of your friends hurt or be in pain, so it’s nice to hear that he’s been doing so well.

Tiger’s Back

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Tiger Woods said on Tuesday that he was attempting to “go away from the pain” when he was charged with driving under the influence six months ago.  Speaking before his latest comeback bid ahead of Thursday’s first round of the Hero World Challenge, Woods discussed the events that left him asleep at the wheel of his running Mercedes-Benz at 2 a.m. on May 29.

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Tiger Woods

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While breathalyzer tests showed no presence of alcohol, a toxicology report later revealed that Woods had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in his system. The 41-year-old Woods entered a program a month later to help him manage back pain, his medications and a sleep disorder.

“I was trying to go away from the pain and I was trying to sleep, which I hadn’t done in a very long time because of the things I’ve been dealing with,” Woods said Tuesday at Albany Golf Course in Nassau, Bahamas.

“I’ve come out the other side and I feel fantastic. I didn’t realize how bad my back was. Now that I’m feeling the way I’m feeling, it’s just hard to imagine that I was living the way I was living, with my foot not working, my leg not working, and then the hours of not being able to sleep at all because of the pain.

“So as my back improved, I’ve been able to start sleeping again because I don’t have the nerve pain going down my leg, I don’t have my leg twitching all over the place. So yeah, I’m loving live now.”

The 14-time major champion hasn’t competed professionally since withdrawing after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic in February due to a back injury. Woods underwent a fourth back surgery on April 19.

“This surgery was about quality of life because I didn’t really have much,” Woods said. “I’ve been in bed for about two years and hadn’t been able to do much.

People ask me, why don’t you go out to dinner? I can’t, I can’t sit. So to be able to have the ability to go out and do things like that, and on top of that to be able to participate in my kids’ sports again.

“As you know, I love sports, I like playing sports and I grew up doing it, so to be able to play with them again, man, I’ve missed it.

Tiger Woods to Return Nov. 30th

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ALBANY, BAHAMAS – Tiger Woods announced on Monday that he will return to competitive golf at the upcoming Hero World Challenge on Nov. 30-Dec. 3.
Woods joked during his Twitter announcement that he’d like to “thank the committee of 1” for receiving one of the two sponsor’s exemptions into the 18-player tournament for which he has served as the host.

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 Tiger Woods
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The 14-time major champion hasn’t competed professionally since withdrawing after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic in February due to a back injury.
The 41-year-old underwent a fourth back surgery one month later.
“I am excited to return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge,” Woods said in a statement. “Albany is the perfect setting and it will be great to join this outstanding field.”
Woods was medically cleared to resume golf activities, his agent told ESPN on Oct. 16. Woods received the go-ahead to resume swinging a club at the end of August, although it was restricted to hitting balls with a pitching wedge at the time.  That came just 2 1/2 weeks after toxicology reports revealed that Woods had five drugs in his system when he was arrested for driving under the influence near his home in Florida on Memorial Day.
Woods was arrested around 2 a.m. on May 29 when officers found him unconscious in his Mercedes-Benz about 15 miles from his home in Jupiter, Fla. The car was awkwardly parked on the side of the road and the driver’s side of the vehicle was damaged.
He told officers he was taking the painkiller Vicodin and the anxiety medicine Xanax to deal with pain from April back surgery.
Woods attempted a comeback earlier this year after a 17-month absence, and it didn’t go well. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January.
Woods held out hope he could play in the Masters in early April but eventually announced he was unable to play.
He originally underwent microdiscectomy surgery to remove a fragment that was causing a pinched nerve in the spring of 2014. He later underwent another microdiscectomy surgery in September 2015 and a follow-up procedure the following month

 

PGA Tour: Tiger Undergoes 4th Surgery

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PLANO – Tiger Woods’ health situation took another turn for the worse on Thursday when the former PGA star underwent his fourth back surgery in the past 37 months.  Woods is sidelined from golf indefinitely and the surgery will require at least a six-month recovery period.  Woods underwent anterior lumbar inter-body fusion surgery to remove a damaged disc in his lower back and re-elevate collapsed disc space to its normal level.

Tiger Woods at recent tournament in Dubai

His three previous surgeries, along with a herniated disc, were causing Woods to suffer from sciatica and severe back and leg pain.

“The surgery went well, and I’m optimistic this will relieve my back spasms and pain,” Woods said in a statement released online. “When healed, I look forward to getting back to a normal life, playing with my kids, competing in professional golf and living without the pain I have been battling so long.”

Woods underwent the surgery at the Center for Disc Replacement at the Texas Back Institute in Plano, Texas.
Dr. Richard Guyer was optimistic after performing the surgery on Woods.

“After he recovers from surgery, he will gradually begin his rehabilitation until he is completely healed,” Guyer said. “Once that’s accomplished, his workouts will be geared to allowing him to return to competitive golf.

“If you are going to have single-level fusion, the bottom level is the best place for it to occur. Some individuals are born with one less vertebrae, which would be similar to someone who had a single-level fusion.”

Guyer said Woods will rest for several weeks before beginning physical therapy and treatment.

Woods, 41, attempted a comeback earlier this year after a 17-month absence and it didn’t go well.

He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January. The following week, he withdrew after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic due to back spasms.

Woods held out hope he could play in the Masters in early April but eventually announced he was unable to play.

The 14-time major champion originally underwent microdiscectomy surgery to remove a fragment that was causing a pinched nerve in the spring of 2014. He later underwent another microdiscectomy surgery in September 2015 and a follow-up procedure the following month.

Woods said Thursday that well-wishers have raised his spirits during the lengthy ordeal.

“I would like to thank all the fans for staying in touch and their kind wishes,” Woods said. “The support I have received has never waned, and it really helps.

Tiger Out with Back Spasms

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DUBAI – (Special to Digital Sports Desk by The Sports Xchange) – Tiger Woods withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Friday because of back spasms — one day after shooting an opening 5-over-par 77 — in another setback to his return to golf after a long injury layoff.

Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, said the 14-time major champion had back spasms after dinner on Thursday night.

“Tiger Woods went into a spasm in his lower back fairly late last night … got treatment done early this morning for 3 1/2 hours, but can’t get it out,” Steinberg said at Emirates Golf Club. “He says it’s not the nerve, but back spasm, and he can’t get the spasms to calm down. He can move around, but he can’t make a full rotation in his swing.”

Woods had five bogeys and no birdies during his first round at the European Tour event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The 41-year-old Woods, who dismissed his health issues for the reason of his poor play on Thursday, was playing in his second official tournament following a 17-month layoff due to multiple back surgeries in 2015.

“No, I wasn’t in pain at all,” Woods said when asked about it after his opening round. “I was just trying to hit shots, and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”

Woods was paid a seven-figure appearance fee to play in the tournament, the first time he traveled to the Middle East for an event in three years.

Steinberg told ESPN the hope is that Woods can still play in the Genesis Open (Feb. 16-19) — which benefits Woods’ foundation — at Riviera Country Club in two weeks.

“Spasms are a funny thing; I’m certainly no doctor, but they come and go,” Steinberg said. “And again, the fact that he feels as though it’s not the nerve pain, that’s very encouraging for him. He’s had spasms before. He’s got to get the spasm to calm down, from what I gather. He has his trainer here, which is good, and that’s who has been working on him for the past several hours.”

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