File this in the “At long last” department: Tiger Woods will play tournament golf again.
Woods, 44, announced Thursday morning on Twitter what most in golf have believed for months was inevitable — that he’s going to play the Memorial Tournament next week at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. It’ll be Woods’ first tournament since the coronavirus pandemic began.
We last saw Woods in a PGA Tour event in February in the Genesis Invitational — the tournament that benefits his foundation — at Riviera Country Club, where he finished 68th, last among the players who made the cut.
When Woods tees it up in the first round of the Memorial next Thursday, 151 days will have passed since he last played a tournament round. That round was a 77 on Feb. 16.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the @Memorialgolf next week,” Woods tweeted. “I’ve missed going out and competing with the guys and can’t wait to get back out there.”
Woods, citing back stiffness at the end of the Genesis, did not play several subsequent tournaments that generally are on his schedule — the WGC Mexico Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship, which was canceled after one round because of the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.
When the PGA Tour’s restart began with the Charles Schwab at Colonial, the RBC at Hilton Head, the Travelers and the Rocket Mortgage, there was much speculation about whether Woods would play one of those four to get some reps or out of simply craving some tournament competition.
He skipped all of them, and is not in the field of this week’s Workday event at Muirfield Village.
The only time we’ve seen Woods play publicly was in the COVID-19 fundraiser at Medalist, his home club, in May when he played a match with Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. And, in that match, played in driving rain, Woods’ swing looked fluid and unencumbered by any back stiffness.
That fueled speculation that he might indeed play one of these first tournaments after the PGA Tour restart.
But we’ve heard nothing but crickets from Woods … until Thursday.
So now the microscopes will keenly dial into Woods and his form, health, etc.
The Memorial, which Woods has won five times in his career, will be only the sixth tournament Woods has played since he won the Masters in April of 2019. Woods has played just three tournaments in this season. He won the Zozo Championship in October, tied for ninth at the Farmers Insurance Open and was 68th at the Genesis.
Woods, whose world ranking has slipped to No. 14, will be seeking his 83rd career PGA Tour victory, which would eclipse Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82, which Woods tied with the win at the Zozo.
Woods surely is using the Memorial as his warmup for the first rescheduled major championship, the PGA Championship at Harding Park, Aug. 6-9. It’s possible he might play in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Classic the week before the PGA, though he usually doesn’t play the week before a major championship.
Woods has played at Muirfield Village 17 times in his career, winning the Memorial in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009 and 2012. He’s never missed the cut at Muirfield.