Tiger Woods has officially confirmed his unavailability for the Hero World Challenge 2024. Fans were hoping to watch him play against the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Keegan Bradley, Ludvig Aberg, and 16 other top pros in a few weeks.
Back in September, Woods had announced that he underwent surgery to fix an issue with his lower back. Since then, his participation in the PNC Championship and Hero World Challenge was in doubt. Woods had confirmed his inclusion in the father-son tournament in early December as he suggested that he would be using a golf cart to keep up with others. Moreover, with his son, Charlie Woods also contributing to the strokes, he won’t need to rush around the 18 holes to maintain the flow of play.
Unfortunately, that is not the case with the Hero World Challenge 2024. As he will be participating as an individual competitor, he will have a much more stressful time on the course. Stress that he can’t afford to take considering his recent surgery.
Amid his absence, let’s reflect on some of the best moments of Tiger Woods in the past versions of the Hero World Tour Challenge.
The comeback at SherwoodBack in 2010, Tiger Woods did not win any trophies for a whole calendar year for the first time in his career. His misfortune continued through most of 2011 as he still wasn’t able to capture a single title. That’s when he joined a formidable lineup of opponents in the 2011 Hero World Challenge.
Tiger Woods was one stroke behind one of his biggest rivals in the tournament, Zach Johnson as he teed off in the final round. He had leveled with Johnson by the 9th hole. He went on to score back-to-back birdies that helped him gain a 2 stroke lead on his adversary. Things turned around again when Woods hit a bogey himself and Johnson followed up with two birdies of his own by the 16th.
But Tiger Woods did not give up as he pushed himself to bag two more birdies on the 17th and 18th. Johnson couldn’t keep up with the 82x PGA Tour winner as Woods captured his fifth Hero World Challenge title.
Age is just a number, but 65 isn’tA 40-year-old Tiger Woods had not participated in any PGA Tour event for a year. He had gone through surgery and faced a long road of recovery until the 2016 Hero World Challenge. The long break definitely had an impact on his strokeplay as Woods shot a 73, 2nd worst score of the first round.
However, he didn’t take the same path as Jason Day who withdrew after shooting a 74 on the first day. Instead, we saw the resurgence of the brilliance of Tiger Woods which helped him be the best in the sport for over a decade.
Woods shot 65 strokes in round 2 to keep the hopes of his fans alive. His undying spirit helped him climb up the leaderboard, although not too far. He finished 15th in a field of 18th. One might wonder why this was so special. They need to understand that the fans started believing again, and so did Tiger Woods. His belief helped him recapture the Masters Tournament title, the 5th of his career. All he needed was a little hope in 2016 after the 1-year hiatus due to his injury.
Scenes from 2001In another chapter of the Tiger Woods & Vijay Singh rivalry, the two were fighting it out on the course to one-up each other throughout the first three rounds. Vijay Singh had gotten the better of Woods as he had a 5-stroke lead by the 9th hole on the last day.
That 9th hole is what changed the tide in Woods’s favor. Woods hit 5 very troubling strokes to put himself close to the hole. He ended with a bogey to begin 10th. What could have been an easy 6 or even 7-point lead for Singh turned into a nightmare. The Fiji pro hit a bogey of his own to keep the margin at 5.
That was enough to motivate Woods to go for the jugular. Woods shot 5 consecutive birdies in the back 9 while Singh continued to drop a couple more bogeys. Tiger Woods managed to gain 7 strokes over Vijay Singh in the last 9 to win the tournament with a 3-hole margin. Woods lifted his first Hero World Challenge title in the third edition of the event he started.
There are many more moments from the tournament that are also worth mentioning. However, these three instances justify the never-give-up attitude of Tiger Woods perfectly. While the GOAT gets closer to the end of his career, we are not sure if we might see him perform at this caliber ever again.
What do you think the future holds for Tiger Woods? Share your views in the comment section.
