Tiger Woods’ next start? The not knowing is the hardest part

CLEARWATER, Fla. — As Tiger Woods was discussing the next stage of his career at a press conference at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Tuesday, some of his fellow middle-aged pros were doing the same at a Florida golf club about 350 miles away.

In his morning session with reporters, Woods reflected on his recovery from an October lumbar disc replacement in his lower back (“not as fast as I’d like it to be”) and what his 2026 playing schedule might look like (“I’m a ways away from that part of it”); meanwhile, his peers — the six members of the U.S. team competing in the Skechers World Champions Cup here at Feather Sound Country Club — speculated about what PGA Tour Champions events might look like should Woods, who turns 50 on Dec. 30, join the fray next year, even for just a couple of starts.

“I think what we ought to do is potentially challenge him,” Jim Furyk said wryly. “I don’t think he can hang out here at these three-round tournaments. Maybe he’ll get mad and play a bunch. I don’t think he can handle Stewart Cink, to be honest with you.

To which Cink responded, “He’s handled me lots of times before. Didn’t seem to be a problem.”

But then Steve Flesch, who is one of four player directors on the PGA Tour Champions board, offered a more nuanced take, noting that everyone from the players to tournament directors to PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady are aching to know Woods’ intentions.

“But, I mean, with this latest surgery, and everybody up here knows, just Tiger doesn’t really share much,” Flesch said. “Other than maybe a couple guys up here who might be good friends with him or talk to him occasionally, he just doesn’t share his plans.”

Flesch reminded the room that Woods has always been that way, dating to his regular playing days when he was notorious for not committing to events until minutes before the Friday-at-5 p.m. deadline. “I think he would most of the time commit at like 4:58,” Flesch said. “Other than the events you knew he was going to play like Memorial, Torrey Pines, his staples, very seldom would he ever commit too early.”

Herein lies a potential logistics headache should Woods decide at the 11th hour to make a senior circuit start

“That puts a big challenge on our tournament directors,” Flesch said. “That’s a big scale to change when all of a sudden he might decide to go to Des Moines, Iowa, which I don’t know if he would, or Madison for Steve’s event.”

Flesch was referring to the American Family Insurance Championship, which Steve Stricker hosts at TPC Wisconsin in June. These smaller-market events aren’t accustomed to the kind of activity that Tiger Woods — yes, even a banged-up 50-year-old Tiger Woods — stirs up.

“That’s a big buildout difference,” Flesch continued. “A lot of people would show up to see Tiger Woods because he hasn’t been in any of these markets. We hope he would play in some of those. Rumor has it he’s probably focusing on the majors, but selfishly to help our Tour, we’d love him to go to Madison and Des Moines and some of the smaller markets where it would really make a big impact, where a lot of people who have never seen Tiger Woods play golf would get to see him in person. Your guess is as good as ours. We won’t really know.”

When Flesch stopped speaking, someone jokingly hollered from the back the room: “Friday at 5!”

“Friday at 5,” Flesch repeated. “Hualalai is our first event he’ll be eligible for next year out in Kona. But his health, his back, we hope he shows up. We’ll know, I guess, Friday at 5 the week before.”