It wasn’t surprising, but it was enough to ruin my Saturday.
Tiger Woods, once again, deployed a three-red-triangle public service announcement on Twitter over the weekend. This time, it was for yet another back surgery—his seventh—to replace a disk in his L4/5 vertebrae This just months after he ruptured his Achilles while ramping up for another week at Augusta National.
We haven’t seen Tiger on the PGA TOUR since The Open at Royal Troon in 2024, and the last time we saw him put a tee in the ground outdoors—he made plenty of appearances during TGL’s debut season—was at the PNC Championship in December.
Since the start of 2022, Tiger’s played in 11 events. He’s withdrawn thrice, missed four cuts, and has played all four rounds just four times.
It may not feel like it, we’ve seen him just enough to get our fix, but golf has been without its best-ever player for several years. And it’s done what seemed impossible a decade ago—survived.
LIV Golf’s inception created enough buzz and intrigue around the sport’s world to grab national headlines. Stars birthed by Tiger’s greatness have cemented their place at the top of the sport, including Rory McIlroy, who completed the Career Grand Slam in April. And, maybe most importantly, the game has been given a dominating figure who has come closer to replicating Tiger’s prime than anyone could possibly have imagined.
Scottie Scheffler has turned top-10 finishes into disappointments, wins into foregone conclusions. Since the second week of February of 2022, the Texan has won 19 times, four major championships, and an Olympic golf medal. He’s comfortably the best player in the world, and unlike some of the shooting stars we’ve seen in the last 10 years, he’s not going anywhere.
Put it all together, and the TOUR, from a viewership perspective at least, is thriving.
People are watching. People are engaged. People are obsessed with golf. I’m not sure we’ll see anything like the Tiger Boom ever again, but the modern era of golf is doing just fine.
Of all things, there’s a meme—trust me, it’ll make sense in a second—that kept popping in my head as I sat on my computer writing this piece.
Tiger created a game people fell in love with. Some of those kids have grew up and have become this generation’s heroes. And now it’s their turn to carry the weight of the sport.
So, sure, golf doesn’t need Tiger anymore. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t miss him.
I know I do.
