Tiger Woods spotted at World Wide Technology Championship
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On hand as one of his course designs set to host PGA TOUR event for first time
Tiger Woods, largely out of sight since undergoing ankle surgery in April, was spotted Tuesday at El Cardonal at Diamante in Los Cabos, Mexico, host of this week’s World Wide Technology Championship.
Wearing black slacks, a light-peach polo, and a black cap, Woods sat on the passenger side of a golf cart watching a First Tee participant get a lesson with PGA professional Michael Block at the Oasis Short Course. Woods watched for a bit before limping into the back of a white SUV.
It marked the third Woods sighting in recent months, fueling speculation that Woods is gearing up for some kind of return to competition, even if in a limited capacity. He was spotted chipping during an appearance with Rickie Fowler and Will Zalatoris at Liberty National in September. The next month came a video of him hitting balls at The Hay, the short course Woods helped design at Pebble Beach Resort, where he was hosting the TGR Jr. Invitational.
This week will mark the first time a Woods-designed course will host a PGA TOUR event. (El Cardonal is his first design.) He is expected to be on site as host (if not as a competitor, too) of the unofficial Hero World Challenge, Nov. 30-Dec. 3, and is expected to tee it up with his son, Charlie, in the father-son PNC Championship, Dec. 14-17.
The PNC seems likely for his first competitive action since April because he can use a cart.
As for the Hero World Challenge, there’s still a spot for a player to be named later.
Walking has been painful, sometimes prohibitively, for Woods since a 2021 car accident in which he suffered multiple breaks in his right tibia and fibula, and also damaged his feet. Jason Day said Woods withdrew from the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills – where he’d shot 69-79 in the second and third rounds, respectively – because “a screw went through the skin.”
Woods hoped to compete at the Hero last year but couldn’t do so due to plantar fasciitis. He has made five official TOUR starts since his accident but completed 72 holes just twice.
He finished 47th at the 2022 Masters at Augusta National – where he’d won in 2019. At The Genesis Invitational earlier this season he shot a third-round 67 but faded to a T45 finish.
Although he reached the weekend rounds at this year’s Masters – his 23rdstraight made cut tied Fred Couples and Gary Player for most all-time – he could go no further in cold, wet weather and withdrew. He underwent fusion surgery on his ankle on April 19 in New York.
“I’m very lucky to have this leg,” Woods said at the Masters. “It’s mine. Yes, it has been altered and there’s some hardware in there, but it’s still mine. It has been tough and will always be tough. The ability and endurance of what my leg will do going forward will never be the same. I understand that.
“That's why I can't prepare and play as many tournaments as I like, but that's my future, and that's okay. I'm okay with that.”