Another surgery clouds Woods’ future as a senior

A cart awaits Tiger Woods on PGA Tour Champions, but surgery has put his plans on pause. Tim Heitman, Getty Images

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CARY, NORTH CAROLINA | Under a bluebird sky last Thursday, what amounts to a traffic jam on the PGA Tour Champions was happening.

The morning wave from a packed SAS Championship pro-am was finishing while the afternoon wave – 28 pros with four amateur partners in each wave – was winding its way to various starting points around the golf course at Prestonwood Country Club.

There had been a similar scene on Wednesday, the secret sauce of the 50-and-over business model still working more than four decades into golf’s most lucrative second-chance opportunity.

The 54-hole tournament – won by Alex Cejka – came after two days of Texas scramble golf, handshakes and photo ops with Hall of Famers such as Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer and Davis Love III. Like a recipe for chocolate chip cookies passed down through generations, what worked when Arnie and Jack got this thing rolling still works today, though on a time-altered platform.

And, even as this season is heading toward its conclusion at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix next month, one potentially tour-altering question hangs in the autumn air.

Will Tiger Woods, who will turn 50 on Dec. 30, play senior golf and, if so, how much will he play?

That question was clouded with Woods’ Saturday announcement that he underwent lumbar disc replacement surgery on Friday in New York City. It was another in a long series of surgeries for the 15-time major champion, who underwent his sixth back surgery 13 months ago and did not play a PGA Tour event in 2025 after rupturing his Achilles tendon in March.

“After experiencing pain and lack of mobility in my back, I consulted with doctors and surgeons to have tests taken. The scans determined that I had a collapsed disc in L4/5, disc fragments and a compromised spinal canal. I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday, and I already know I made a good decision for my health and my back,” Woods posted Saturday on social media.

The PGA Tour Champions doesn’t need saving – insiders suggest it’s not a severe drain on the tour’s bottom line – but Woods’ participation, no matter how limited, would be a massive boost.

Though he did not offer any indication of when he hopes to return to golf, the latest surgery will likely sideline him through the end of the year, if not longer. He was not previously listed as a competitor in the Hero World Challenge he plays host to in December and it raises doubts about his availability to join son, Charlie, in the PNC Championship also in December.

Woods’ Jupiter Links team will play its first TGL match on Jan. 13.

The question of Woods’ potential presence on PGA Tour Champions has been put on pause for the moment, though his contemporaries hope he will eventually join them from time to time.

“It actually would suit him very nicely out here,” Pádraig Harrington said before news of Woods’ latest surgery surfaced.

Interest. Eyeballs. Excitement.

Woods has hinted at his willingness to play a few senior events, if only to tee it up with some of his longtime friends while being allowed to ride in a cart, but he has always been reticent to reveal his playing schedule in advance.

Three years ago at Augusta, Woods joked that he was getting closer to the time when “I get the little buggy and [can] be out there with Fred [Couples].”

When it was recently announced that Woods had signed a partnership agreement with human resources company Insperity, speculation jumped to whether he will play the Champions event hosted by the company in Houston, though the official announcement made no such reference.

Tiger Woods’ participation would be welcomed by PGA Tour Champions players. Tim Heitman, Getty Images

The fact that Woods has only played 10 official events since the start of 2022 tempers the expectations but his window to be competitive is continuing to shrink.

Scott McCarron recalls being in his first or second year on the PGA Tour when he found himself in a conversation with Jack Nicklaus.

“He says, ‘Hey, I have one regret in my life.’ I’m like, oh my gosh, what’s that? He says, ‘I wish I would have played more on the Champions tour, because once it’s over, it’s over,’” McCarron said.

How much Woods will potentially play on the PGA Tour Champions will depend on several things:

His health, particularly his back and his right leg that was badly damaged in an auto accident; his desire; and his involvement in other endeavors.

At Seminole Golf Club earlier this year, Ernie Els said he talked with Woods about what competitive golf looks like on the senior side, going so far as to map out a potential schedule Woods might play, understanding Woods still wants to win more major championships.

“We want him out here and I really do believe when he plays out here, he’s going to really flourish again,” Els said near Prestonwood’s 18th green, having posed for a final few photos with his amateur partners

“Because you got a bit of competition … it’s guys that he’s beat up his whole life. These guys don’t really go away, like little hungry dogs, they’ll be biting, but it’ll be good. And [he] can drive a cart without any hesitation and play golf courses where we can make some birdies. Get his confidence back and I think that little bit of play under the gun will really hold him in good stead.”

Since the injection of $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises by the Strategic Sports Group and the announcement of Brian Rolapp as the new CEO earlier this year, change – both real and potential – has been a theme.

PGA Tour Champions is not exempt and Woods’ occasional presence could be the biggest change.

“It looks like [the tour is] in pretty good shape. I know they talk about shrinking everything. I know the new CEO wants to produce some numbers, but we’ve got great sponsors,” Els said.

“You talk about Fortune 500 companies, we have them [10 are title sponsors] here, and look at the fun we have with these guys. So I don’t believe our sponsors are going anywhere.”

Last week, SAS extended its sponsorship for another three years and 75 percent of the tour’s 28 events are locked in through 2028 with Charles Schwab as the umbrella sponsor through 2033.

The recent news that the players’ pension fund is being reduced understandably drew complaints from several players but it demonstrates SSG’s intention to capture a double-digit annual return on its investment.

But when Rolapp mentions scarcity as a priority, it’s fair to assume he’s not talking just about shrinking the PGA Tour schedule. Q-School for seniors has been eliminated and tightening the 28-event schedule is sure to be evaluated.

“There is a sweet spot,” Harrington said. “There’s a sweet spot in all of these things. I definitely prefer less tournaments, more competition for those less tournaments, so that … only the best tournaments survive.”

“That’s what these guys want,” Els said of the tour’s investors.

There is also the longer-term question of whether the current generation of PGA Tour players will have the desire to play tournament golf after they turn 50 given the millions of dollars many of them are making annually now.

It’s a down-the-road question but will Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth want to play after they turn 50? Rory McIlroy has already said something will have to have gone “horribly wrong” for him to play competitive senior golf.

Before that, there is the Tiger question, a tantalizing subject as he so often is.

As a teasing autumn chill blew in last week, the notion of what a 50-year-old Tiger Woods might do was hard to ignore.

“We’d love it out here,” Love said. “I hope he does [play]. We’d even make carts mandatory so he can come right out.”