Tiger Eyeing Up Monthly Starts In 2024

It doesn't take much for many of us to get carried away by the playing plans of Tiger Woods but a couple of throwaway lines in a press conference will generally do it.

“I don't have any of the pain that I had at Augusta or pre that in my ankle. Other parts are taking the brunt of the load so I'm a little more sore in other areas, but the ankle's good. So that surgery was a success," explained Woods at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

If that wasn't enough then we then began to start chalking up half a dozen starts in 2024 rather than the four Majors, a return to the Bahamas before signing off with his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship.

Now we have the very real prospect of Woods back at Sawgrass as well as more likelihood to tackle all four of the big ones – the last time that he played in all four Majors was 2019, the year of his sixth Masters victory.

"I think the best scenario would be maybe a tournament a month. I think that's realistic, you would have to start with maybe at Genesis (at Riviera in February) and something in March, near the Players. Again, we have set-up right now the biggest events are one per month. It sets itself up for that. Now, I need to get myself ready for all that. I think this week is a big step in that direction."

The Majors in 2024, aside from Augusta, are at Valhalla, where he beat Bob May in the 2000 PGA, Pinehurst No 2 and Royal Troon. Who will be on his bag is still up in the air – Joe LaCava is now with Patrick Cantlay so his friend and business partner, Rob McNamara, was on the bag this week in the Bahamas.

“I had my subtalar fused. I'm excited to compete and play and I'm just as curious as all of you are to see what happens because I haven't done it in a while. I was just looking forward to this week and seeing how things turned out. I'm curious to see what 72 holes looks like on the body and my game and then try and set a schedule going forward into next year."

Woods will turn 48 at the end of the month and he will go into 2024 as part of the PGA Tour Policy board as a player director. And he admitted that the framework agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) that was announced on June 6, with a deadline of December 31, had been as much of a surprise to him as anyone else.

"I would say that my reaction was surprised as I'm sure a lot of the players were taken back by it, by what happened so quickly without any input or any information about it, it was just thrown out there," Woods said.

"We were very frustrated with what happened. We were all taken back by it. It happened so quickly without any of our involvement. No-one knew. That can't happen again. How we do that is having six player directors so we control the board and we control what we're going to do.

"I think Jay [Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner] has been a part of the direction, he understands what happened prior to that can't happen again and won't happen again, not with the players that are involved and not with the player directors having the role that we have."