This sentence alarmed the golf world: “I think it's realistic to play the tour again one day - never full-time anymore, but picky, like Mr. (Ben) Hogan did.
Pick a few events a year and play a few more around them, ”said Tiger Woods in a half-hour Zoom interview from the training hall of his house in Florida, which the former tour player Henni Koyack conducted for the American golf magazine Golf Digest on Monday.
For the first time since his serious car accident outside of Los Angeles on February 23, the longtime leader spoke publicly about his physical condition and his future plans. "I'm fine," said Woods, relaxed. On November 21, the 45-year-old superstar posted a three-second video on Twitter. It showed him playing a golf swing with a short iron, his right leg, seriously injured in the accident, completely covered with a black compression stocking. Woods captioned this post with “Making progress”. On the very first day, this short swing sequence was followed by more than 7.5 million fans. Countless colleagues and golf instructors commented on it.
But whoever believed that this was Woods' announcement that he would be back on the PGA Tour in the near future, was taught better in this interview: “I still have so much to do.
I'm not even halfway there.
I still have so many muscles and nerves to build up in my leg.
At the same time, I have five back operations behind me.
I have to deal with that.
So when the leg gets stronger, the back may come forward.
It's a tough road.
But I'm just happy when I can go out and watch Charlie play, or go into the garden and have an hour or two to myself with no one talking, no music, no anything.
I only hear the birds chirping.
I missed this part painfully. "
Observation of the son
Woods said the prospect of following his twelve-year-old son Charlie at tournaments kept him very motivated during the healing process. Some of the first pictures that surfaced of Woods after his accident were of him watching his filius in Florida. But Woods Sr. was much more than just a proud observer. He shared how he criticized Charlie for getting too high scores: “So I watched him play and it went well. But if he played a bad hole, he lost his temper on the next few strokes. I said, “Son, I don't care how angry you get. Your head could fly away from me as long as you are one hundred percent focused on the next hit. That's all that counts. That next punch should be the most important punch in your life.It should be more important than breathing. "
Woods did not reveal in the interview whether Charlie will soon be able to show that he is taking his father's advice into account. He commented on the rumors that Woods will compete again with Charlie on December 18 and 19 at the PNC Championship, where the major winners team up with a family member, as he did last year at his last tournament appearance Interview not. According to the American magazine Golfweek, the organizers are still keeping one of the twenty seats open for Team Woods for the tournament in Orlando.
Woods will probably have to say something about this at his first public appearance this week when he is as an organizer in the Bahamas. The “Hero World Challenge” takes place there from Thursday to Sunday, his foundation's invitation tournament for twenty top players. Many of them, like President Joe Biden, not only sent Woods wishes for wellbeing over the phone, but also visited him during his convalescence - and none more often than Justin Thomas: “The Thomas and the Woods are like a family. Justin is to me the brother I never had, and to JT Charlie is the little brother he never had, ”said Woods.
In addition to a new family, Woods gained another insight during the tough and extremely painful recovery: “I don't have to compete with the best players in the world and play against them to have a great life.
After my back stiffened, I had to climb Mount Everest again.
I had to do it and I did it.
This time I don't think I'll have the body to climb Mount Everest again, and that's okay too. "