Written By Robert W. Cornish
A Tiger Woods comeback will have to wait.
A Tiger Woods comeback will have to wait.
Woods pulled out of this week’s Safeway Open days before the start of the tournament.
Woods explained on his website.
“After a lot of soul searching and honest reflection, I know that I am not yet ready to play on the PGA TOUR or compete in Turkey,”
“My health is good, and I feel strong, but my game is vulnerable and not where it needs to be.”
Sport-books had Woods at 40/1 to win the Safeway Open the weekend. A very short bet considering his massive absence from top form golf.
Woods wrote on his website:
“I was going to Safeway, I had every intention of playing, or I wouldn’t have committed. I spent a week with the U.S. Ryder Cup Team, an honor and experience that inspired me even more to play. I practiced the last several days in California, but after a lot of hours, I knew I wasn’t ready to compete against the best golfers in the world. I will continue to work hard, and plan to play at my foundation’s event, the Hero World Challenge, in Albany.
I would like to apologize and send my regrets to Safeway, the Turkish Airlines Open, the fans in California and Turkey and those that had hoped to watch me compete on TV. This isn’t what I wanted to happen, but I will continue to strive to be able to play tournament golf. I’m close, and I won’t stop until I get there.
This would have been Tiger’s first PGA Tour event of the 2016-17 season
He has not played since the Wyndham Championship in August 2015, where he tied for 10th before undergoing two back procedures late last year.
Woods has fallen to 786th in the world.
What amazed me about Tiger’s demise was how important the family life of an athlete is. Tiger was dominating golf. Think back to the early 2000s, he would win one in three tournaments he played in. When Tiger was playing, everybody else played for second.
Then one public scandal about his infidelity and everything fell apart. Understandably his personal life was ruined, but the catastrophic effect it had on his golf game stunned me. He’s never recovered from it, but I’d never write him off winning again.