Tiger Woods’ long-awaited return is here.
The PGA Tour announced Friday that Woods will return to play next week at the Safeway Open in Napa, California. When the 40-year-old officially tees off, it will mark his first tournament action since the 2015 Wyndham Championship last August.
Back issues limited Woods in recent years, and he underwent multiple procedures that forced him to miss nearly a year and a half.
Woods played sporadically in 2015, and for the most part, he didn’t play well. The highlight of Woods’ season was finishing tied for 17th at The Masters, where he finished 5-under. Woods missed the cut at four of those 11 tournaments and withdrew from another. Woods posted scores of 13-over, 14-over, 16-over and 7-over over the course of the season.
There might be reason for optimism among Woods’ fans, though. Woods’ friend, longtime PGA Tour golfer Jesper Parnevik, told Golf Digest that Woods’ return “might be spectacular” and that the 14-time major winner has been “pounding it a mile and flushing everything” during practice rounds.
Thumbnail photo via Rob Kinnan/USA TODAY Sports Images
