The thought of returning to the PGA Tour crossed Tiger Woods’ mind well before this week’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.
But Woods, a five-time winner of the event, put his safety first. He wanted to wait and see how the top five tournaments were played during the coronavirus pandemic before committing to the Memorial via Twitter on July 9th.
“I just felt it was better to stay home and be safe,” said Woods on Tuesday. “I am used to playing with many people around me or having many people who have a direct line with me, and this puts not only myself in danger, but my friends and family, and has only been at home to practice and to get away and be social away from a lot of people. Coming back and playing the tour, in my case for the past twenty years I’ve been here, it’s really hard to say that I’m used to having so many people around me or even touching me, going from green to tee. It’s something I looked at and said, well, I’m not really comfortable with that whole idea. “
The Memorial will be the first event on Woods’ tour since February 16, when he played in the final round of the Genesis Invitational, turned 77 and was the last of those who made the cut. Woods teamed up with former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning to play against Phil Mickelson and Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady in a charity match in late May to raise money for coronavirus relief.
One of the biggest differences that Woods will see when he starts playing with Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka for the first two rounds is that there will be no fans in the tournament this week. It was announced in early June that fans would be admitted to the tournament, but officials later announced that fans would no longer be allowed to participate due to the increase in the number of coronavirus cases.
No player on the tour has a bigger fan following than Woods, who is a 15-time champion. But like all the other tour participants, Woods will have to adapt to the change. The players described the scene to him as a very different world out there.
“It will be different, there is no doubt,” said Woods. “For most of my career, in practically all the rounds of competition I have been involved in, I have had people around me, screams of spectators, many movements within the gallery with TV crews and media.”
The Zozo championship, which he won in October; the Farmers Insurance Open, to which he drew for the ninth in January; and Genesis, where he finished in 67th place, are the only three tournaments that Woods has played this season.
Woods is 41st in the FedEx Cup ranking and 14th in the official world golf ranking.
Woods said his back was stiff when he played Genesis in California. But the long layoff helped him maintain health. On Tuesday he played a practice round with Justin Thomas.
“I feel much better then,” said Woods. “I was able to train and focus on returning to speed and returning to tournament speed, so how I moved to” The Match “and being able to progress since then, being here today and being able to play with JT today, it was a lot of fun for both. “
Woods was asked about his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement and his reaction to the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt in his neck for nearly eight minutes on May 25.
“I think the change is fantastic as long as we make changes without hurting the innocent, and unfortunately it has happened. Hopefully it won’t happen in the future, but a movement and change is fantastic,” said Woods. “This is how society develops. This is how we grow. Here is how we move forward. Here is how we have equity. Unfortunately we have lost innocent lives along the way, and we hope not to lose more in the future as we move to a much better place socially” .
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