Tiger plans to be back for Memorial
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 had believed for months was inevitable — he’s going to play the Memorial Tournament next week at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. It’ll be Woods’ first tournament since the pandemic.
We last saw Woods in a PGA Tour event in February at the Genesis Invitational, the tournament that benefits his foundation, at Riviera Country Club. He finished 68th, last among the players who made the cut.
When Woods tees it up in the first round of the Memorial, 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 whether Woods would play 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 he might indeed play one of these first tournaments after the PGA Tour restart.
But we’d heard nothing but crickets from Woods … until Thursday.