Seven months after leaving the British Open in tears, the American golfer returns to the PGA Tour, Thursday, February 16, on the occasion of the Genesis Invitational, in Los Angeles, California.
By Laura Pottier
This is an image that is becoming increasingly rare. Thursday, February 16 at 9:04 p.m. (metropolitan time), Tiger Woods will put his ball on the number one tee of the Riviera Country Club hole in Los Angeles (California), on the occasion of the Genesis Invitational. It has been seven months since the big star of the world golf course has no longer played an official tournament. For the occasion, the “tiger” will share his game with his two best friends on the circuit, the American Justin Thomas and the North Irish Rory McILroy.
If he has never imposed himself on thirteen participations, Tiger Woods, however, has a very special link with the Riviera Country Club, where the tournament he sponsors since 2017 is taking place for the benefit of his TGR Foundation. It is on this course that he hits his first blows, child, then that in 16 years old, still an amateur, he made his debut on the circuit of the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA). But this is also where, 15 adults and 82 tournaments earned later, everything almost stopped for him. Leaving the premises early, on the morning of February 23, 2021, the American is the victim of a serious car accident a few kilometers further. Due to several fractures open to legs, especially to the right, which came close to amputation, the pursuit of his career then seemed unexpected.
Two years later, the 47 -year -old golfer is still standing … and full of ambition. “I would not be here if I did not think I could win. This is my mentality,” said former world number one, at the edge of this umpteenth comeback. It is indeed necessary to go back to July 15, 2022 to find its trace in an official competition. It was during the 150
“I will not play a full season”
These results relegate Tiger Woods in the depths of international rankings (it is currently 1,294
Tiger Woods may be motivated, will his body follow? The numerous fractures had required the installation of a metal rod on its tibia as well as screws to consolidate the bones of its foot and its ankle. And the consequences are always present. In mid-December 2022, he disputed, in the company of his son, the PNC Championship, an exhibition, in Orlando. But he then moved by cart to spare himself. Two weeks earlier, he had to give up the Hero World Challenge because of a plantar fasciitis at the right foot – an injury linked to those suffered during his accident.
However, Woods wants to be reassuring. “It’s going much better. It remains to be seen what my endurance will be,” the American told the media on Tuesday. “The key is the recovery from one day to the next. Yes, I am rusty, but I knew it several times in the past, and I have manifested myself badly,” he Added, smiling. Between a rupture of the anterior cross ligament, in 2007, a rupture of an Achilles tendon, in 2011, or even back problems which led to a perilous operation of fusion of the vertebrae, in 2017, the American is a accustomed to serious injuries.
On the demanding course of the Riviera Country Club, with in particular a steep descent from the first tee and then a climb to the clubhouse, Tiger Woods could, in case of success, become the most titled player in history – He shares the record (82 victories) with Sam Snead since his first place at the Zozo Championship, in 2019. But he will not have the easy part against the cream of the circuit: nineteen of the twenty best players in the world, including the World number one, Scott Scheffler, will be present. “I have prepared myself well and I know this course. I know how to train on it and what blows strike,” says the tiger.