Woods confirms that he's in much better shape physically this year

It might the ‘giggliest’ of all the ‘hit and giggles’, but Tiger Woods’ second competitive event with a fused ankle is in the books and the signs are encouraging that we’ll see a lot more of Tiger in 2024.

With his son Charlie playing alongside and daughter Sam caddying, the week was about so much more than Tiger’s physical health, of course, and that was the first takeaway for the 15-time Major champion.

“I think the whole week, to be able to share it with my family,” he responded when asked what the highlight was. “To have both my kids out there the last two days has been so special. Just grateful for us to be able to have these types of experiences, for Charlie and I to have done this for four years in a row now since the start of COVID, to be able to come out here, and for all of us as families to come out and enjoy the week, it’s special.

“And for me, I haven’t seen a lot of these guys because a lot of them are on the Champions Tour and quite frankly I haven’t played a lot. So it was nice to catch up with them this week and see all their families.”

Given what’s happened in top-tier men’s golf over the past 18 months, with the game fractured to an extent it’s never been before, Woods’ presence as a semi-regular competitor has never been needed more and both his mobility on and around the course and his post-round comments are cause for optimism, even if the aches and pains are still present in other parts of his body.

“I think that a lot of things are aching a lot more than my ankle, which is the way it goes,” he said. “I’ll be able to walk and play. We’ve been working out hard, been able to recover. We’ve been training every day, which is great. It’s been nice to knock off a lot of the rust and some of the doubt that I’ve had because quite frankly I haven’t hit a shot that counted in a long time.

“So having to post a score and hit shots on the right number, and hit shots with consequence, it’s been nice.”

Woods’ return to PGA Tour action at the 2023 Genesis Invitational at Riviera was encouraging in the early rounds, but his body – and his ankle in particular – rapidly deteriorated over the weekend, and though there were no visible signs of deterioration over the weekend rounds at the Hero World Challenge a fortnight ago, how the recovery went in the aftermath was always going to be a key factor in his ability to play with any sort of regularity in 2024.

“Very different,” he replied when asked how the recovery differed. “Riv, my ankle was not good at that time and the recovery was a lot more difficult. But we’ve been training every day. After the Bahamas, we were in the gym on Monday. So we have been going after it.”

“The ankle was fine because it’s now fused but other parts were definitely aching,” he added. “But the fact that, you know, we were able to train right away and get after it, and start hitting balls, it was encouraging.”

Team Woods combined to shoot 11-under on day two of the family affair which elevated them into a tie for fifth, six shots behind eventual winners Bernhard and Jason Langer and once again, it was 14-year-old Charlie whose exploits caught the attention.

He drove the green at the 355-yard par-4 seventh, and then chipped in for birdie on nine with a very Tiger-esque fist pump to accompany.

“I was on the high side, so I got a chance to see it from about ten, 12 feet out,” Tiger said of Charlie’s chip-in after the round, “and it looked great from where I was.

“To see his reaction — it happened right in front of me. He went right in front of me. He got excited and I looked over at Stricks [Steve Stricker] and he was shaking his head. It was great.

And then on top of that, to see Izzy [Stricker] almost hole it right on top of him, it was a great family atmosphere at that one little hole.”