Tiger Woods didn’t complete his final round of the Genesis Invitational how he might have liked on Sunday at the Riviera Country Club in California. But finishing these four rounds – scratch that – simply making the cut after Friday, was a feat in itself.
As he finished with a par putt on 18, a classic roar for Woods came from the crowd looking on. Woods finished tied for 45th in the tournament after shooting 73 (two over par) to finish at minus-1 for the week.
But the question on everyone’s minds after seeing Woods finishing this round is when will he be back on the course. He gave some insight on his mindset moving forward in 2023.
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"Competitively, I don’t know," he told CBS after his final round. "My goal each and every year here going forward is to play in all the majors. I’m not going to play too much more than that. My body, my leg and my back won’t allow me to play much more than that anymore. That was my goal last year. I was able to play three of the four. This year, I can hopefully play all four. That’s going to be my schedule going forward because of the limitations I have."
Woods has been battling many injuries since his car accident in 2021, which led to multiple injuries in his right leg, foot and ankle. He’s also dealt with plantar fasciitis recently.
This was Woods’ first sanctioned tournament since the Open Championship in July 2022. He did fight through pain in majors last year and recently played in the PNC Championship in December with his son, Charlie, though he was clearly hurting.
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But Woods has been preparing for this moment, and since he’s never won at Riviera, he gave it his best shot. Overall, he liked how he played.
"My game’s fine," he told CBS after the final round. "Yeah, it is rusty. I made some silly mistakes here and there. I didn’t quite pick up the speed of the greens each and every day fast enough like I was normally playing. But overall, I felt like I hit the ball like I have been hitting it at home. Now I just have to bring it out here where I have to walk from point A to point B, and that was always the difficulty of it."
"I’m just so thankful for my team for getting me ready each and every night, morning. At least giving myself a chance to go out there and play, and I was able to do it."
This week didn't come without some controversy from Woods, who was spotted handing a tampon to Justin Thomas, one of his group pairings, after outdriving him and Rory McIlroy on a hole. He brushed it off, saying it was "friends having fun," but others viewed it as a misogynistic act.
"It was supposed to be a funny game, but obviously it hasn't turned out that way," Woods said. "If I offend anybody, it was not the case," he said.
A 69 on Thursday had Woods at two-under, which had him off on the right foot. However, he went three over on Friday to move to one-over, which still had him make the cut. That’s all the fans needed to see.
Woods then came out Saturday with his best round since his return, putting together a 67 with just one bogey on Hole 7, three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 first hole to bring him to three-under for the weekend.
On Sunday, Woods couldn’t find that same type of scoring, bogeying five times in the round compared to three birdies.
But fans followed him around just like it was a normal Sunday with him in the lead.
They will await the next time they can do so, and it may be on April 6 when The Masters tees off at Augusta National Golf Club.
