Tiger Woods is Still Working Towards a Return, He's Just "trying to do it correctly this time"

Tiger Woods spoke before the Quicken Loans National, a tournament that he is hosting and that benefits his foundation. Woods has stayed positive every time he’s spoken since he’s emerged from the shadows after having multiple back surgeries, and he reiterated the fact that he’s working towards a return to the sport he once dominated. He did state that he is taking his time and trying to make this return the right way.

"“I’m still progressing, I’m still getting stronger; I’m excited about what has transpired so far.” “I’ve gotten stronger and it’s just recovering from day to day. Has anything bad happened; that’s one of the things. I’m sore and it’s about trying to recover the next day. I just need to still get in, I guess, more golf shape, try to hit more golf balls, things of that nature.” “So I’m still working on it, I’m still progressing so far and I just wish I could be here and play and be out here and get it done. Just miss playing.”"

Of course Big Cat misses playing; it’s all he’s done since he burst onto the scene with his win at the Masters in 1997. Since then he’s done nothing but win, dominate, and help grow the sport of golf, until of course that incident. Even though Woods won five tournaments in 2013 after the incident, and was Player of the Year, he still hasn’t won a major tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

There is positive news that he is on the right track. Woods said that he’s played 18 holes of golf, which is something we hadn’t heard before, and he’s done so on back-to-back days.

"“It’s about four, five days in a row, it’s about me playing 36 holes daily, getting up to speed and playing. I’m not quite there yet. I’m trying to get there, I’m trying to get there as fast as I can, but I’m trying to do it right at the same time. As you know, I’ve pushed through a lot of injuries and rehabs before. Trying to do it correctly at this time.”"

It’s obvious that Woods has learned from his past mistakes of rushing his recovery, but the issue with a return for Woods this year is that he’ll need something other than a major tournament to make a debut in to test his game, and the Olympics, which have been a complete disaster for golf, have bunched up the major championship schedule to the point that trying to make a return this year seems pointless.

"“I need to get to a point where I can be competitive out here, I need to practice and play. That’s a totally different scenario. I’m sneaking up on both things, but the first thing first is I need to get to where I can pretty much do anything off the golf course first and then challenge myself through practice, which I’m doing, and then eventually build up to where I can play out here and compete.” “I just need to get to where strength-wise I can handle the workload of playing out here on a weekly basis, practicing after round, not having to go ice my back and all that kind of stuff. I need to get to where I can play 18 holes out here and go to the range for an hour and work on my game. That’s what I used to do, that’s one of the reasons why I think I’ve had some success. I was able to work on it during the week. Just not quite there yet.”"

Its fine that he’s not “quite there yet;” there is no need for him to rush back. Woods is irrelevant in the world rankings, he’s currently ranked 589th, and golf is still as entertaining as ever without him. Still, it would be fun to see him out there with the young guys, and it would be even better to see a 100% healthy Tiger out there giving the young guys a run on the weekend.

While some people believe he’s done, I’m still not going to say he’s done or believe that he cannot be competitive until he officially says it is done. Remember, he was tied for the lead at the Wyndham Championship last year.

As far as I know, he’s yet to say that. I’m not asking you to believe he’ll come back and win again, but I am asking you to give him a chance to fully recover, to find his game, and to accept him when he does come back, even if his first event back doesn’t go very well and he ends up chunking chips and spraying drives.

Side note: The last time we saw Tiger, this is what happened.