Tiger Woods Still Isn’t Playing, Will Sit Out TGL Regular Season

The second regular season of the indoor league will finish without Tiger Woods playing though he could compete in TGL playoffs if his team qualifies.

Tiger Woods has appeared at all of his TGL team’s matches this season but has not played. | GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tiger Woods is not in the lineup for his TGL Jupiter Links team on Tuesday night, meaning the 15-time major champion who is recovering from October back surgery will go the entire indoor league regular season without playing.

Woods, one of the founders of the second-year endeavor, has been present at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for his team’s matches, including Sunday night’s loss to Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common team.

But he has been unable to compete in any of the team’s four matches to date and there was hope he might take part in the final regular-season match Tuesday.

The league has a playoff format that takes the top four teams and Woods’s team has a chance to make it with a win Tuesday, which means it’s possible he could play when the playoffs begin March 17.

Woods also skipped Monday’s Seminole Golf Club pro-member event which annually boasts an all-star cast of players. McIlroy was among those scheduled to play in the one-day outing where Woods played last year prior to an Achilles injury that knocked him out for the year.

In October, Woods announced that he had undergone disk replacement surgery, a seventh back procedure.

Two weeks ago at the Genesis Invitational, Woods did not rule out a return at the Masters and also hinted at playing PGA Tour Champions.

“My body has been through a lot,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where it's each and every day, I keep trying, I keep progressing, I keep working on it, trying to get stronger, trying to get more endurance in this body and trying to get it at a level at which I can play at the highest level again.”

Asked if he’s hitting full shots, Woods said: “I’m able to. Not well every day, but I can hit them.”

And when asked if he’d ruled out playing in the Masters in April, Woods said. “No.”

“I’ve had a fused back [2017] and now a disk replacement, so it’s challenging,” he said. “And now I entered a new decade [Woods turned 50 in December] and so that number is starting to sink in and has us thinking about the opportunity to be able to play in a cart.

“That’s something that, as I said, I won’t do out here on this tour because I don’t believe in it. But on the Champions Tour, that’s certainly an opportunity.”

Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner will play for his team Tuesday night against The Bay lineup of Ludvig Aberg, Min Woo Lee and Wyndham Clark. TGL also plays Monday night.