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      Phil Mickelson Apologizes for Support of Saudi-Backed Golf League

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      Mickelson called his recent comments “reckless” and said he will consider taking a break from competing as KPMG, his longtime sponsor, announced it would no longer represent the golfer.Phil Mickelson on Tuesday said he regretted his recent comments in support of a breakaway golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia and suggested he might take a leave from the golf course to “prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”“I used words I sincerely regret that do not reflect my true feelings or intentions,” Mickelson said in a statement. “It was reckless, I offended people and I am deeply sorry for my choice of words. I’m beyond disappointed and will make every effort to self-reflect and learn from this.”A Statement from Phil Mickelson pic.twitter.com/2saaXIxhpu— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) February 22, 2022
      A proposed Super Golf League, whose main source of funding is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a sovereign wealth fund worth more than $400 billion, has tried over the last year to lure prominent golfers like Mickelson away from the long-established PGA Tour.In an interview for an unauthorized biography to be released in May, Mickelson told the journalist Alan Shipnuck, the book’s author, that he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” but said he was willing to help the new league because it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to dramatically increase the income of PGA Tour players.In a story posted last week on The Firepit Collective, a golf website, Shipnuck quoted Mickelson, a six-time major golf champion, as saying the Saudi authorities were “scary” and using a profanity to describe them. Mickelson also noted the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was assassinated in 2018 with the approval of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to U.S. intelligence officials, and alluded to the criminalization of homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, where it is punishable by death.Mickelson’s comments spurred a vociferous backlash from the highest-ranking players on the PGA Tour, almost all of whom have publicly rebuffed the new, alternative league. Rory McIlroy, a four-time major winner and one of the tour’s most respected players, called Mickelson’s remarks, “naïve, selfish, egotistical, ignorant.”McIlroy’s contemporaries, a younger breed that now represents professional golf’s hierarchy, were similarly dismissive of the comments attributed to Mickelson, who is 51.“I don’t do this for the money, which to me is the only appeal to go over there,” Jon Rahm, 27, said of the upstart Super Golf League. Added Rahm, who is atop the men’s golf rankings: “They throw numbers at you that’s supposed to impress people. I’m in this game for the love of golf and the love of the game and to become a champion.”Mickelson’s longtime rival Tiger Woods also professed his fealty to the PGA Tour, which is based in America. And Mickelson’s comments may have fostered even more support for it as two more top golfers, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau — both of whom had been noncommittal about the new league — announced that they were sticking with the tour.Late Tuesday afternoon, KPMG, a professional services firm and a longstanding Mickelson sponsor, announced that it would end its relationship with Mickelson effective immediately.Mickelson’s statement on Tuesday could be an attempt to ward off a possible suspension from the tour. He said his actions had always “been with the best interest of golf, my peers, sponsors and fans.”He also implied that his remarks were “off-record comments being shared out of context and without my consent.”Minutes after Mickelson released his statement, Shipnuck, on Twitter, called Mickelson’s contention that his comments had been off the record “completely false.”While Mickelson’s statement on Tuesday was rambling, he seemed to be trying to make the case that alternatives to the PGA Tour were not without merit.Mickelson, surrounded by fans, shortly before winning the P.G.A. Championship last May.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock“Golf desperately needs change, and real change is always preceded by disruption,” he said. “I have always known that criticism would come with exploring anything new. I still chose to put myself at the forefront of this to inspire change, taking the hits publicly to do the work behind the scenes.”Mickelson, a popular player who won the P.G.A. Championship in 2021, addressed his corporate sponsors who may be unwilling to continue their relationships with him.“The last thing I would ever want to do is compromise them or their business in any way, and I have given all of them the option to pause or end the relationship,” he said, adding: “I believe in these people and companies and will always be here for them with or without a contract.”Mickelson concluded his statement with a discussion of his triumphs and setbacks.“I have experienced many successful and rewarding moments that I will always cherish, but I have often failed myself and others, too,” he said. “The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level. I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.” More

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      If Mickelson Bolts for Saudi-Backed Tour, Will Young Golfers Follow?

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      Mickelson, one of the game’s most popular players, has simultaneously spent nearly three decades vexing the sport’s leadership, while collecting nearly $100 million in earnings.It is hardly a surprise that Phil Mickelson is playing the provocateur in the growing drama over a proposed, breakaway Saudi Arabia-backed golf league that hopes to lure top professional golfers from the long-established PGA Tour. Mickelson, one of the game’s most popular players, has simultaneously spent nearly three decades vexing the sport’s leadership, whether it has been the august United States Golf Association or the PGA Tour, from whom Mickelson has collected nearly $100 million in career earnings.So Mickelson’s pedigree as a freethinking firebrand is well established. But even that reputation could not have forecast the striking comments attributed to him when discussing the proposed Super Golf League, whose main source of funding is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a sovereign wealth fund worth more than $400 billion.In an interview for an unauthorized biography to be released in May, Mickelson told journalist Alan Shipnuck, the book’s author, that he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” but was willing to help the new league because it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to dramatically increase PGA Tour players’ income.In a story posted on “The Firepit Collective” golf website, Shipnuck quoted Mickelson as saying the Saudi authorities were “scary,” and used a profanity to describe them. He noted the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was assassinated in 2018 with the approval of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Mickelson also alluded to the criminalization of homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, where it is punishable by death.“We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson was quoted as saying. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”Mickelson’s main target was Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, who he claimed would help players financially only if forced to do so. The upstart league, Mickelson said, gave the players new leverage. Earlier this month, in an interview with Golf Digest, Mickelson castigated the tour for its “obnoxious greed.”For Mickelson, who is 51 and a six-time major champion, his remarks will likely only further isolate him from the young golfers rising in the sport. For the most part, these new kingpins of golf have pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour, which has vowed to suspend any player aligning with the alternative league., with lifetime expulsion from the PGA Tour also a possibility.Thursday at the Genesis Invitational, a tour event being played near Los Angeles, Justin Thomas, who is eighth in the men’s world golf rankings and active in helping set tour policies, was unsparing when discussing Mickelson.“Seems like a bit of a pretty, you know, egotistical statement,” Thomas said. Referring to Mickelson and any other players who want to defect from the tour, Thomas, 28, added: “If they’re that passionate, go ahead. I don’t think anybody’s stopping them.”While no tour golfer has committed to the upstart league, a few golfers, most of them over 45, have been noncommittal about it and offered mild praise for some elements proposed by the rival league, like fewer tournaments and appearance fees at events that are paid to top golfers regardless of how they perform on the golf course.But the split with the golfers born after 1985 could not be more conspicuous.Rory McIlroy, at the Genesis Invitational on Wednesday, said he is “so sick” of hearing about the Saudi-backed tour.Cliff Hawkins/Getty ImagesRory McIlroy, a four-time major winner, called the proposed new golf circuit “the not so super league.” He added: “I’m so sick of it.”McIlroy, 32, also suggested that it was only older players past their prime looking for a hefty payday who are weighing an exit from the PGA Tour.“I can maybe make sense of it for the guys that are getting to the latter stages of their career, for sure,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s what a rival golf league is really. That’s not what they’re going to want, is it? They don’t want some sort of league that’s like a pre-Champions Tour.”The Champions Tour is a scaled-down, separate wing of tournaments within the PGA Tour umbrella that is open to golfers more than 50 years old.“You’ve got the top players in the world saying ‘no,’ so that has to tell you something,” McIlroy said.Jon Rahm, the top-ranked men’s golfer, was also dismissive of the proposed league.“I don’t do this for the money, which to me is the only appeal to go over there,” Rahm, 27, said. “They throw numbers at you and that’s supposed to impress people. I’m in this game for the love of golf and the love of the game and to become a champion.”Perhaps the hottest young star, Collin Morikawa, 25, shook his head when asked where he stands on the potential for a new league.“I’m all for the PGA Tour, my entire life I’ve thought about the PGA Tour,” Morikawa, who has won two major championships in the last two years, said. “I’ve never thought about anything else; it’s always been the PGA Tour.”Many other players have expressed support for the PGA Tour, most notably the golfer who served as the idol for nearly all the young players now rising to the top of tour leaderboards.“I’m supporting the PGA Tour,” Tiger Woods said emphatically late last year when asked about the proposed venture. “That’s where my legacy is.”When pressed, Woods looked almost annoyed and insisted he had no interest in listening to discussions about a rival league.Tiger Woods, at the 2020 Masters tournament, has spoken in strong support of the PGA Tour.Doug Mills/The New York TimesAdam Scott, who is 41 and the 2013 Masters champion, did not close the door to joining the Saudi-backed league when asked about it this week. In the last decade, Scott has significantly reduced his playing schedule and fallen to No. 46 in the men’s rankings. Lee Westwood, who is 48 and a 25-time winner on the European Tour, said earlier this month that he had signed a nondisclosure agreement and could not discuss the projected new league.But most pros on the PGA Tour do not seem to expect a major disruption of the status quo.Pat Perez, an outspoken tour journeyman, believes Woods’s voice — not surprisingly — carries the most weight. The modern tour, after all, was built on the back of Woods’s towering successes. Perhaps one could consider this another chapter in the longstanding Mickelson-Woods rivalry.“I think the way Tiger’s approaching it is phenomenal,” Perez, 45, said Thursday. “He understands where he made all his money. I think these young kids, they’re backing Tiger. What he says is pretty much gold.”Perez continued: “If you don’t have the top kids doing it, I just don’t know how much water it’s going to hold.” More

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      Phil Mickelson Praises Saudi-Backed Golf Tour Despite Khashoggi Killing

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      A biographer quoted Mickelson as saying that though he knew of Saudi Arabia’s “horrible record on human rights,” a new golf tour it was funding was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”The pro golfer Phil Mickelson faced a mounting backlash this week for his reported remarks about a Saudi-backed golf tour, with a biographer quoting him as saying that though he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” the tour was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”Mickelson, a six-time major winner, made the comments during a nearly hourlong phone interview last November, Alan Shipnuck, a longtime golf writer who is completing a biography on the golfer, said on Friday.A former writer for Sports Illustrated and Golf magazine, Mr. Shipnuck reported the remarks on Thursday on The Fire Pit Collective, a golf site.Mickelson, 51, had been asked to comment about his connection to the Super Golf League, an upstart tour whose main source of funding is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a sovereign wealth fund totaling more than $400 billion.He called the Saudi authorities “scary,” using a profanity to describe them, and noted the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was assassinated in 2018 with the approval of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Mickelson also alluded to the criminalization of homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, where being gay is punishable by death.“We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson was quoted as saying by the biographer. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”Representatives for Mickelson, who is one of the biggest names linked to the breakaway tour, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.A spokesman for the PGA Tour declined to comment on Friday.When reached on Friday, Mr. Shipnuck said that the golfer had previously declined to be interviewed for his biography, “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” which is scheduled to be published in May. But he said that Mickelson had granted him an on-the-record interview in an attempt to explain his potential involvement in the breakaway tour.“Phil likes to play with fire,” Mr. Shipnuck said. “Sometimes when you play with fire, you’re going to get scorched. I don’t think he realized how hot this topic is with Saudi Arabia.”In his online account of the interview, Mr. Shipnuck said that the golfer had enlisted three other unidentified players to hire lawyers to draft the upstart tour’s operating agreement.Several top golfers criticized Mickelson for his remarks, including Justin Thomas, the eighth-ranked player in the world. Speaking to reporters on Thursday at the Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles, he said it “seems like a bit of a pretty, you know, egotistical statement.”Thomas continued: “It’s like he’s done a lot of great things for the PGA Tour, it’s a big reason it is where it is, but him and others that are very adamant about that, if they’re that passionate, go ahead. I don’t think anybody’s stopping them.”Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, the columnist Peter FitzSimons criticized Mickelson’s comments. He urged Greg Norman, a former golf champion and head of the breakaway tour, to cut ties with the new venture.“Well, anyone with a conscience would resign,” Mr. FitzSimons wrote. “But with you I guess that is beside the point here. Your best plan is probably to do what you have been doing, and do better than anyone — hold your nose and go after more money.”Jane MacNeille, a spokeswoman for LIV Golf Investments — the company who chief executive, Mr. Norman, is starting the breakaway tour — heralded Mickelson in a statement on Friday.“Phil is one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game, and we have an enormous amount of respect for him and his career,” she said. “Any league or tour would be lucky to have him.”Brandel Chamblee, an analyst for the Golf Channel and former PGA Tour player, said on Twitter on Friday that “those advocating for the Saudi backed tour, most notably Phil Mickelson, are trying to obfuscate their greed and masquerade that this is about growing the game.” More

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      Bob Goalby, Masters Champion Thanks to a Gaffe, Dies at 92

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      He won at Augusta in 1968 after Robert De Vincenzo signed an incorrect scorecard. But to many, the victory was tainted, leaving Goalby feeling like the victim.Bob Goalby, the 1968 Masters champion whose victory was shadowed by one of golf’s most memorable gaffes, Roberto De Vicenzo’s signing of an incorrect scorecard, died on Thursday in Belleville, Ill. He was 92.The PGA Tour confirmed his death.Goalby won 11 PGA Tour championships, he was a runner-up at the United States Open and the PGA Championship, and he once shot a tour-record eight consecutive birdies. He was among the founders of the Senior Tour, now called the Champions Tour. But he was remembered mostly for the bizarre events of an Easter Sunday at Augusta National in Georgia.When Goalby walked off the 18th green with a final-round 66 and a total of 277 at the 1968 Masters, he expected to face De Vicenzo, the winner of the 1967 British Open, in a playoff. De Vicenzo, who was considered Argentina’s finest international player, had finished moments earlier with a 65 that had evidently given him 277 as well.But De Vicenzo’s birdie 3 on the 17th hole had been marked as a par 4 by his playing partner, Tommy Aaron, who was tallying his scorecard, a common arrangement for paired golfers. De Vicenzo, disgusted by his bogey on the 18th hole, had quickly signed that card, giving him a 66 for 278, without making certain that Aaron’s markings matched his own unofficial scorecard.Goalby with a glum De Vincenzo after the Masters tournament had concluded. Goalby emerged the victor because of a scorecard mistake by his Argentine rival. “What a stupid I am,” De Vincenzo lamented.Associated PressWhen the error was discovered within minutes, Masters officials, after conferring with Bobby Jones, the patriarch of Augusta National, concluded that because De Vicenzo had signed the scorecard, the rules of golf prohibited him from correcting it.De Vicenzo famously lamented, “What a stupid I am.”Goalby put on the traditional Masters green jacket, but he received numerous letters from fans accusing him of being a phantom champion. Some evidently presumed that it was Goalby, rather than De Vicenzo’s playing partner, who had been keeping the Argentine’s scorecard.“I still have a thousand letters in a box at home saying I’m the worst guy that ever lived,” Goalby told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1998. “One fellow wrote, ‘They ought to put you and Sonny Liston in cement and drop you in the ocean.’”Goalby always considered himself a true Masters champion, and De Vicenzo, along with fellow golfers on the pro tour, did not begrudge him his victory.“The guy you have to feel sorriest for is Goalby,” the tour golfer Frank Beard was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated in the weeks after the Masters. “A man gets few chances in his career to win a big one. But to win one and have it tainted like this is terrible. It wasn’t as if Roberto didn’t know the rules.”For Goalby, the taint never faded.“I’ve always felt like a victim, as much or more than Roberto,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1989. “None of the problems with scorecards were my fault. But I have forever been singled out as the guy who won the Masters because of some damn clerical mistake. I don’t think I ever got credit for what I did that week.”Robert George Goalby was born on March 14, 1929, in Belleville, near St. Louis, the son of a coal miner. He was a star quarterback in high school and worked as a caddy. He won several Midwestern golf tournaments as an amateur, attended the University of Illinois, then served in the Army.“I learned to play golf by mimicking the swings of those I caddied for,” Goalby told The Missouri Golf Post in 2016. “Very few of my buddies played golf because it was so expensive, but we all played football, baseball and basketball. I only got serious about golf after I got out of the Army and was sort of at loose ends.”He joined the pro tour in 1952.Goalby struggled with his tendency to hook the ball, and he showed a temper that sometimes left him talking to himself on the fairways. But he was among the leading golfers of the 1960s. He tied Doug Sanders for second place at the 1961 United States Open, one stroke behind Gene Littler, and he was second at the 1962 PGA Championship, one shot behind Gary Player.He set a PGA Tour record for consecutive birdies in a tournament with eight at the 1961 St. Petersburg Open in Florida, a mark equaled by several others and eclipsed by Mark Calcavecchia’s nine at the 2009 Canadian Open. He played in the 1963 Ryder Cup.Goalby was a leader of the touring pros’ rebellion of 1966-68 against the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, the national organizing body at the time not only for the tournament players but also for the numerous “golf pros” who ran pro shops and gave lessons.The tournament players demanded full control over their scheduling and finances in a dispute that was finally resolved with the creation of the modern PGA Tour. Run by a commissioner, it has engineered a huge growth in TV revenue, purses and events along with a pension plan.“When you look at how successful it has been, and all the money these guys play for now, so much of it came from those days,” Goalby told Golf.com when it recounted the dispute in 2018.Goalby retired from the PGA Tour in 1971. He helped create the framework for the Senior Tour at a January 1980 meeting with Sam Snead, Gardner Dickinson, Don January, Julius Boros and Dan Sikes at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He was a two-time winner on the tour, its unofficial spokesman in its early years and later a member of its policy board.He was also a golf commentator for NBC and designed golf courses near his home.Goalby’s immediate survivors include his sons Kye, Kelly (known as Kel) and Kevin. He was an uncle of Jay Haas, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, and Jerry Haas, the golf coach at Wake Forest University, and a great-uncle of Bill Haas, who has won six PGA Tour events.Goalby was a playing partner with De Vicenzo several times over the years, and he said that they remained friends but never discussed that 1968 Masters. Di Vicenzo died in Argentina in 2017 at age 94.At the office in his Belleville home, Goalby kept a letter from Bobby Jones: “I ask you to always remember that you won the tournament under the rules of golf and by superlative play.”And, as Goalby told The Rocky Mountain News in 1995, “When I’m introduced, they still have to say, ‘Bob Goalby, Masters champion.’” More

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      Charlie Woods Dazzles While Tiger, in Return, Grimaces and Grinds

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      At the PNC Championship, the first tournament for the 15-time major champion since a devastating car crash in February, father and son inspired awe — and trepidation.To watch Tiger Woods and his son play golf over the weekend was to feel a kaleidoscope of emotion.Goodness, it was something to see Tiger back. It was just 10 months ago when his S.U.V. tumbled off the road in suburban Los Angeles. He nearly died. He had to be pried from the overturned wreck of mangled metal with the Jaws of Life. His injuries, including compound fractures in his right leg, were so severe that doctors discussed amputation.He spent nearly a month in the hospital, and three more laid up in bed.And yet there he was, golf’s complicated and magnificent lodestar, healthy enough now to grind and grimace through 36 holes at the PNC Championship, a casual soiree of a tournament teaming golfing greats with family members.For Tiger Woods, that meant pairing with his son, 12-year-old Charlie, who after being put on center stage for the second year running at this tournament is now renowned in the game of golf and far beyond.All weekend — particularly on Sunday when the duo battled briefly to the top of the leaderboard on the back nine — father and son inspired awe and, dare I say it, trepidation.We kept one eye on Charlie, noticing every way he mirrored his father. Every hitch, every grimace and smile and stance. Every torquing twist and long follow-through and confident twirl of the iron.We kept another eye on Tiger, two years removed from winning his 15th and last major championship, the 2019 Masters.He flashed enough tantalizing glimpses of old form to foreshadow a return one day to truly competitive, high-test golf.But Tiger Woods, 45, is clearly compromised. For every glimmer of magic in this nationally broadcast event — the orbital drives that nestled upon the greens, the lengthy putts that curved and swept to their targets — came reminders that he is no longer the same.He often walked with a noticeable limp, favoring his left leg over his right. Sometimes he grimaced and groaned after swinging hard. On drives, he could not push off on his right leg the way he needs. And over the last few holes of the tournament he was on occasion outplayed by Charlie.But the weekend was not just about the father. For fans, it was also about the son. Because of who Tiger is and how he plays, there is an equal fascination with Charlie, who last December played this tournament as its youngest competitor ever. It was then that the enchantment began. Fans could not get enough of Charlie, Tiger’s mini-me, a then-11-year-old whose technique was pristine — and mirrored his father’s to a T.This year’s competition offered more of the same. On television, anchors used slow-motion video to analyze and fawn over Charlie’s backswing, his follow-through, his hip turn.Early in the week, shots of Charlie hitting practice shots on the Orlando Ritz-Carlton course slung across the internet. Casual duffers who have spent the better part of three decades worshiping Tiger now stand in awe of Tiger’s 12-year-old.Charlie and Tiger Woods during the first round of the PNC Championship on Saturday.Jeremy Reper/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhat does this portend for Charlie?Watching him play smack dab in front of the world brought to mind a difficult back story: the well-known tale of Tiger Woods and his father, Earl Woods. The elder Woods eagerly infused his dreams into the life of his son, who grew up before our eyes, making his debut on national television at age 2, hitting balls in front of Bob Hope on “The Mike Douglas Show.”Before Tiger’s teens were done he was drenched in fame — and saddled with staggering expectations. Tiger would not just be the greatest golfer who ever lived, his father contended in those early, heady days, he would “do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity.”Can it be any surprise that Tiger grew into a man saddled with deep emotional wounds?When his internal struggles spilled out in the open, it was as ugly as can be: sex scandals, addiction, divorce, a charge of driving under the influence in 2017.To many, he is and always will be a superhero.He is also a cautionary tale.On Sunday, with the tournament on the line, Charlie struck two perfect drives, including a 5-iron on the 17th he placed as beautifully as any shot hit by any of the field’s pros. He followed those irons with a pair of clutch putts, securing two more birdies for Team Woods, giving them 11 birdies in a row.Tiger’s son relished all of it.How long can that last? Think of the assumptions of greatness with which Charlie will now have to contend.He appears to be a wunderkind. But because he is the son of Tiger, and because he has now been thrust before the public because of his golfing skills, the spotlight will begin to burn much hotter.How will this affect him, not as a golfer but as a human being? Is it possible that Tiger would have better served Charlie by waiting three or four more years to unveil his son to the world?Time will tell.Team Woods nearly ended the PNC with a win. They finished two shots back of John Daly and his son, John II, now a freshman on the golf team at the University of Arkansas.“What a blast it was,” Tiger Woods said, shortly after he and his young and now famous partner finished by making par on the 18th hole. “We just had a blast all day.”He looked energized, and he smiled that familiar wide smile.It is the job of parents to carry their children. This weekend, birdie after birdie after surely struck drive, Tiger and Charlie carried each other — and the results were joyous for both. Let’s hope it remains this way. More

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      Tiger Woods Set to Play the PNC Championship With His Son

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      The golfer, who is still recovering from a serious car crash in February, has not competed in a tournament since he and his son, Charlie, last played in the family team event a year ago.Last week, Tiger Woods was emphatic that he would never again be a full-time player on the PGA Tour because of the serious leg injuries he sustained in a high-speed car crash in February. But Woods conceded that he could “play a round here and there,” which he called, “a little hit and giggle.”Woods is not waiting long to make an informal, and public, return to a golf course. On Wednesday, he announced he would play in a family team tournament with his son, Charlie, on Dec. 18 and 19. The event, the PNC Championship, has a small limited field — it was once called a father/son tournament — and will be contested at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.“Although it’s been a long and challenging year,” Woods, whose doctors considered amputating his right leg 10 months ago, wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “I’m very excited to close it out by competing at the @PNC Championship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.”Although it’s been a long and challenging year, I am very excited to close it out by competing in the @PNCchampionship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 8, 2021
      Woods, who turns 46 on Dec. 30, has not played in a tournament of any kind since he entered the 2020 PNC Championship with Charlie, who is now 12, roughly a year ago. The duo finished seventh. Shortly afterward, Woods had a fifth back surgery that sidelined him for the next few months.The PNC Championship’s 36-hole team format should make it easier for Woods to avoid placing too much stress on his lower right leg, which was reconstructed by doctors using a rod, screws and pins during emergency surgery following his crash outside Los Angeles on Feb. 23. Each player in a pairing will begin a hole by hitting from the tee and players will then pick which tee shot is most advantageous to play. Both players hit a second shot from that spot, a process that is repeated until the hole is finished.Importantly for Woods, there will be only two 18-hole rounds rather than the usual four rounds on the PGA Tour and players can use golf carts driven within a few feet of a player’s ball. On the tour, golfers are required to walk.The players will also play from different sets of tees, which means Charlie Woods will play from the forward tees and often make his father’s tee shots, which will be struck from much farther away, unnecessary. While Tiger Woods was hitting golf balls at a practice range during last week’s World Hero Challenge, a PGA Tour event he hosted in the Bahamas, he also made several jokes about how his shots were traveling about half the distance they once did because he lacked strength and the nerves in his right leg were diminished. From 2018 to 2020, Woods averaged about 299 yards in driving distance during tour events.In last year’s PNC Championship, Woods sometimes had his son hit first — from tees that could be dozens of yards closer to the hole — and if Charlie’s tee shot was well-positioned on or near the fairway, Woods did not bother hitting his tee shot. The format, known as a scramble, could conceivably put Woods in a position to primarily hit less physically demanding shots struck with irons, wedges and a putter throughout his rounds. The format would also permit Woods to decline hitting any shots from a challenging, uneven lie or from daunting terrain that might put added force on his right leg.NBC will televise both rounds of the PNC Championship.Woods’s appearance on a golf course next week will likely spawn conversations about when he might return to the PGA Tour. The Masters Tournament, which he has won five times, is only four months away. But last week Woods cautioned against speculation about when, or if, he will return to elite competitive golf.“I haven’t proven it to myself that I can do it,” Woods, who has won 15 major golf championships, said. “I can play a par-3 course and I can hit a few shots. I can chip and putt, but we’re talking about going out there and playing against the world’s best on the most difficult golf courses under the most difficult conditions.“I’m so far from that. I have a long way to go to get to that point. I haven’t decided whether or not I want to get to that point. I’ve got to get my leg to a point where that decision can be made.”Last year, however, Woods talked repeatedly about how much it meant to him to be able to play with Charlie.“We can do this together for a lifetime,” Woods, who was taught the game by his father, Earl, who died in 2006, said. “I like the thought of having that opportunity to play with him for as long as I live.”Several of Woods’s colleagues from the PGA Tour in the previous 25 years will join him in next week’s field, including his good friend Justin Thomas and his father and coach Mike Thomas; Jim Furyk and his son, Tanner; Henrik Stenson and his son, Karl; and the multiple major champion turned broadcaster Nick Faldo and his son, Matthew. Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked women’s golfer, will also make her debut in the event playing with her father, Petr. More

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      Tiger Woods Concedes the Spotlight. ‘I’ve Had a Pretty Good Run.’

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      Best known for willing himself to victory, the winner of 15 major championships said he had no desire to do what would be necessary to win another on his surgically rebuilt right leg.It was 15 minutes into his first public appearance since a terrifying car crash in February that Tiger Woods, assessing an uncertain future and a celebrated past, took the measure of his career.“I got that last major,” a wistful Woods said on Tuesday, recalling his stunning 2019 victory at the Masters Tournament, golf’s most watched event, at age 43.Ascending to a similar pinnacle in golf, however, is no longer foremost in Woods’s plans.“I’ve had a pretty good run,” Woods, with the thinnest of smiles, said at a news conference nine months after he sustained devastating leg injuries when his sport-utility vehicle tumbled off a Los Angeles-area boulevard at a high speed. He added: “I don’t see that type of trend going forward for me. It’s going to have to be a different way. I’m at peace with that. I’ve made the climb enough times.”In that moment, one of the most influential athletes of the last quarter-century retreated from the brightest spotlight in sports. Woods said he hoped to play competitive golf again at some level, although he offered no timetable for achieving that ambition. Instead, a sporting champion best known for willing himself to victories conceded that his surgically rebuilt right leg would forever inhibit his once-lofty expectations and drive.“A full practice schedule and the recovery that it would take to do that,” he said, “no, I don’t have any desire to do that.”It was a striking concession for the tenacious Woods, and an inflection point for golf and sports in general. Woods has been among the world’s most prominent people since he won the first of his 15 major golf championships in 1997, with a likeness recognized around the globe and omnipresent commercial endorsements.Woods after winning the Masters in 2019, an improbable triumph after years of struggling with a damaged spine.Doug Mills/The New York TimesYet, for all his triumphs and attendant fame, the February crash and its debilitating consequences were in keeping with a recurring cycle of fortune and misfortune — all of Woods’s own making — that will forever mark the narrative of his life.At the height of his fame, in 2009, when he seemed destined to easily surpass Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major golf championships — Woods already had 14 — news reports about serial infidelity cost him his marriage, and he was shunned by many in the golf community. His myriad corporate sponsors dropped him. The scandal caused him to take a lengthy hiatus from golf.When Woods returned to competition, he struggled to find his old form, in part because of physical ailments linked to the obsessive, perhaps overly aggressive workout regimen that had been his hallmark. Worse for Woods, on the same golf courses where he had been greeted by wild cheering, he was instead met with an eerie quiet that bordered on disdain.In time, he became a limping afterthought as a young wave of golfers replaced him atop leaderboards. Woods’s descent led to a defining act: a middle-of-the-night arrest in May 2017 that revealed an opioid addiction. The police took Woods into custody after he was found alone and asleep in his car on the side of a road with the engine running.In keeping with his career arc, Woods’s resurrection was dramatic and irresistible.At the 2019 Masters, he was not considered a serious contender. Yet as he played the last holes of the final round on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club, Woods was rejuvenated. He played his best golf while his younger rivals wilted, birdieing three of the final six holes to claim his fifth Masters title. When he sank the winning putt on the 18th hole, Woods celebrated with a primal scream that seemed to be matched by the thousands of fans encircling the green.Two years earlier, Woods had ranked as low as 1,119th in the world. His comeback, given his off-the-course hardships, is among the greatest in sports history.While Woods continued to be competitive in 2019, and won one more event, the pandemic forced an extended absence from golf. In January this year, he underwent a fifth back operation that sidelined him. He hoped to return by April.On Feb. 23, police determined that Woods was driving about 85 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on the winding Southern California road when he lost control of his SUV. Woods sustained open fractures, in several places, of the tibia and the fibula in his right leg.Woods’s SUV after the crash in February.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesOn Tuesday, speaking ahead of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, a tournament that benefits Woods’s foundation, he briefly discussed the crash and its aftermath, which included the possibility that his right leg would have to be amputated.“I feel I’m lucky to be alive but still have the limb — those are two crucial things,” Woods, 45, said. “So I’m very, very grateful that someone upstairs was able to take care of me and I’m able to not only be here, but also walking without a prosthesis.”When asked what he remembered about the crash, Woods said: “Yeah, all those answers have been answered in the investigation. So you can read about all that there in the police report.”In an investigation affidavit, Woods repeatedly said he didn’t remember how the crash occurred. He was not charged with any legal violation. Asked if he had flashbacks or recent memory of the incident, Woods replied: “I don’t. I’m very lucky in that way.”Woods said he purposely did not watch news accounts about his crash while he was hospitalized.“I didn’t want to have my mind go there,” Woods said, adding that he was in considerable pain, even when medicated. Asked if he was still in pain, he grinned and nodded.“Yep, my back hurts, my leg hurts,” Woods said.Woods appeared most comfortable when discussing what he can and cannot currently do on the golf course. He has begun playing some holes, but he said his swing lacks speed and power, noting that many of his shots “fall out of the sky” much sooner than they once did.“It’s eye-opening,” Woods said and offered giggling support to a United States Golf Association initiative that encourages golfers to play from tees that can significantly shorten the length of courses. “I really like that idea.”The comment reflected the arduous path Woods will have to negotiate to return to the elite level of golf necessary to play on the PGA Tour.“I’ve got to prove to myself that I’m good enough,” he said of that effort. Referring to PGA Tour pros, Woods quipped: “I’ll chip and putt with any of these guys, but courses are longer than chip-and-putt courses. I’m not going to be playing the par-3 course at Augusta to win the Masters. You need a bigger game than that.”But Woods, who talked about how the muscles and nerves in his right leg needed to continue to rehabilitate, was nonetheless optimistic that, in time, he could possibly improve his game enough to sporadically play tour events again.“To ramp up for a few tournaments a year, there’s no reason I can’t do that and feel ready,” he said. “I’ve come off long layoffs and I’ve won or come close to winning. I know the recipe.”He cautioned, though, that he was not close to that level of golf yet.“I have a long way to go to get to that point,” Woods said. “I haven’t decided whether or not I want to get to that point.”Woods at the 2020 Masters, where he finished in a tie for 38th. He pointed out on Tuesday that he had won after long layoffs but that he was far from that level of the game now.Doug Mills/The New York TimesAt roughly the midpoint of the news conference, Woods was asked if he wanted to play in next year’s British Open, on the 150th anniversary of the event. It will be held at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.“I’d love to play at St. Andrews, my favorite golf course in the world, and being a two-time Open champion there,” he said.But Woods’s next sentence was perhaps most telling. He changed the subject to whether he would be able to attend the pre-competition ceremonial dinner for past British Open champions.“I would like, you know, just even being a part of the champions dinner is really neat,” he said. “Those dinners are priceless. It’s an honor to be part of a room like that.” More

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      Tiger Woods Rules Out a Full-Time Return to the PGA Tour

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      In a half-hour video interview with Golf Digest, Woods, who was badly injured in a car crash early this year, said he hopes to recover enough to play sporadically in tour events.Tiger Woods hopes to play on the PGA Tour again, though never as a full-time player, something he called “an unfortunate reality” that he has accepted, according to a 30-minute video interview with Golf Digest posted online Monday.“I think something that is realistic is playing the Tour one day — never full time, ever again — but pick and choose, just like Mr. Hogan did and you play around that,” Woods, 45, said, referring to the nine-time major champion Ben Hogan, who played sporadically, if effectively, after breaking multiple bones in a devastating 1949 car crash. “You practice around that, and you gear yourself up for that. I think that’s how I’m going to have to play it from now on. It’s an unfortunate reality, but it’s my reality. And I understand it, and I accept it.”On Feb. 23, Woods sustained open fractures of both the tibia and the fibula in his right leg in a single-vehicle crash outside Los Angeles. The fractures were described as comminuted, which meant the bones were broken in several places. After undergoing emergency surgery, he was hospitalized for three weeks. In that time, Woods said, he faced the possibility of having his right leg amputated.The police determined that Woods was driving about 85 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on a winding road when he lost control of his sport-utility vehicle. He was not charged with any legal violation.The vehicle Woods was driving when he crashed in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on Feb. 23.Allison Zaucha for The New York Times“There was a point in time when — I wouldn’t say it was 50-50 — but it was damn near there if I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” Woods said in the video of a Zoom interview, which began with the smiling golfer striding toward the camera without a noticeable limp, inside his South Florida home.Woods, who has had several back operations, including a fusion in 2017, returned to professional golf and won the 2019 Masters, his 15th major championship, a comeback Woods referenced on Monday.“After my back fusion, I had to climb Mt. Everest one more time,” he said. “I had to do it, and I did. This time around, I don’t think I’ll have the body to climb Mt. Everest, and that’s OK. I can still participate in the game of golf. I can still, if my leg gets OK, I can still click off a tournament here or there. But as far as climbing the mountain again and getting all the way to the top, I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation of me.”He added: “I don’t have to compete and play against the best players in the world to have a great life.”On Tuesday, Woods will make his first formal public appearance since the crash, attending a news conference at the Hero World Challenge, a 20-man tournament in the Bahamas that benefits Woods’s foundation.On Monday, he described the stages of his rehabilitation over the last nine months. One of his first memories after the crash, Woods said, was of asking for a golf club that he held in his hands while in the hospital. Later, he spent three months confined to a hospital bed, mostly at his home. Next, he was able to move around in a wheelchair, then on crutches and eventually in a walking boot.“I’ve had some hard days and tough setbacks,” said Woods, who believed his recovery would be swifter. “But I keep progressing and I’m able to walk again.”Woods last week posted a three-second video of himself swinging a short iron on a practice range, but he cautioned that he was nowhere near ready to play competitive golf.“I have so far to go,” Woods said. “I’m not even at the halfway point. I have so much more muscle development and nerve development that I have to do in my leg. At the same time, as you know, I’ve had five back operations, so I’m having to deal with that. As the leg gets stronger, sometimes the back may act up.”During the video interview, Woods seemed to spend more time talking about his 12-year-old son, Charlie, than any other topic. Charlie has been playing in a succession of junior golf events, with Woods in attendance lately. The two have also spent time in chipping and putting contests at a practice facility. Woods has counseled Charlie on the mental aspects of competitive golf, most notably how to recover from a bad hole.“I said, ‘Son, I don’t care how mad you get. Your head could blow off for all I care, just as long as you’re 100 percent committed to the next shot,’” Woods said. “That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing. Once you understand that concept, then I think you’ll get better. And as the rounds went on throughout the summer, he’s gotten so much better.”Throughout the video, Woods was upbeat and even jocular, although he was more serious when discussing the next steps in his rehabilitation.“There’s a lot to look forward to, but a lot of hard work to be done,” he said. “And I have to be patient and progress at a pace that is aggressive but not over the top.”He added: “It’s been a tough road, but to get on this side of it is fantastic.” More