Ten months after his proper leg was badly broken in a automobile crash, Tiger Woods is returning to competitors subsequent week with 12-year-old son Charlie within the PNC Championship.
“Though it’s been a protracted and difficult yr, I’m very excited to shut it out by competing within the PNC Championship with my son Charlie,” Woods tweeted. “I’m enjoying as a Dad and couldn’t be extra excited and proud.”
It will likely be his first competitors, even in a match Woods described final week because the “hit-and-giggle” selection that he can play, since he and his son tied for seventh a yr in the past within the unofficial occasion that pairs relations.
FILE PHOTO: The car of golfer Tiger Woods, who was rushed to hospital after struggling a number of accidents, is loaded onto a restoration truck after being concerned in a single-vehicle accident in Los Angeles, California, U.S. February 23, 2021. Picture by Gene Blevins/Reuters.
The match was holding a spot for Woods, and he fueled hypothesis he would possibly play the Dec. 18-19 occasion on the Ritz Carlton Golf Membership Orlando when he took full swings with driver on Saturday and Sunday throughout his Hero World Problem within the Bahamas.
“We’ve got been liaising with Tiger and his workforce for a while and are delighted that he has now determined to make his return to aggressive golf on the PNC Championship,” mentioned Alastair Johnston of IMG, the manager chairman of the occasion.
Woods was driving to a Los Angeles course for a tv shoot on Feb. 23 when police say he was driving about 85 mph alongside a winding, coastal suburban street. The SUV crashed by a median and plunged down a hill.
Medical doctors mentioned he shattered the tibia and fibula bones in his proper leg in a number of areas. These had been stabilized by a rod within the tibia. A mixture of screws and pins had been used to stabilize further accidents within the ankle and foot.
Woods mentioned final week that amputation was thought-about. He declined to debate specifics of the crash, saying solely “you may examine all that there within the police report.”
The PNC Championship was previously referred to as the Father-Son Problem till it modified the title to be extra inclusive of relations. For the primary time in its 24 years, the match has a present No. 1 participant within the discipline, Nelly Korda, who can be enjoying along with her father Petr, a former Australian Open tennis champion.
READ MORE: Los Angeles sheriff will reveal reason for Tiger Woods automobile crash
Lee Trevino is enjoying once more and has by no means missed the match because it started in 1995. Justin Thomas returns because the defending champion along with his father, Mike, a longtime PGA skilled.
Nonetheless, this turns into all about Woods contained in the ropes, hitting photographs that depend towards a rating. A yr in the past, it was his final occasion earlier than a fifth again surgical procedure, not as severe because the earlier ones. Towards the tip of the second spherical, he was not hitting some tee photographs as a result of his son performed from a ahead tee and was getting it on the market farther than Woods may have hit it.
Followers are returning to the Florida course, and it already is near a sellout as a result of organizers restrict ticket gross sales to protect the intimate nature of the occasion.
The subsequent query can be when Woods, who shares the profession PGA Tour report with 82 victories, will play in an official occasion.
He had mentioned final week that was a good distance off, dousing hopes of a return by suggesting his leg wouldn’t enable him to apply as a lot, he was at peace with that and “I’ve made the climb sufficient occasions.” He additionally mentioned he hadn’t reached a degree of deciding whether or not to finish a full comeback from his newest accidents.
“I’ll play a spherical right here or there, a bit of hit and giggle, I can do one thing like that,” he mentioned. “To see a few of my photographs fall out of the sky loads shorter than they used to is a bit of eye-opening, however at the very least I’m capable of do it once more. That’s one thing that for some time there it didn’t seem like I used to be going to. Now I’m capable of take part within the sport of golf.
“Now, to what stage? I have no idea that.”
The primary stage is along with his son at his aspect in a 36-hole occasion the place he doesn’t should hit each shot and might trip in a cart. However the rating will depend, and that hasn’t occurred because the PNC Championship final yr.
