Editor’s note: “In case you missed it” is one GGP+ function that highlights a story Global golf post‘s Monday magazine.
CARY, NORTH CAROLINA | Under blue skies, what amounts to a traffic jam on the PGA Tour Champions took place last Thursday.
The morning wave of a packed SAS Championship pro-am ended, while the afternoon wave – 28 pros with four amateur partners in each wave – made its way to various starting points around the Prestonwood Country Club golf course.
A similar scene had unfolded on Wednesday, with the secret sauce of the over-50s business model still operating in golf’s most lucrative second chance for more than four decades.
The 54-hole tournament – won by Alex Cejka – came after two days of Texas scramble golf, handshakes and photo ops with Hall of Famers such as Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer and Davis Love III. Like a chocolate chip cookie recipe passed down from generation to generation, what worked when Arnie and Jack got this thing going still works, albeit on a time-altered platform.
And even as this season nears its conclusion at next month’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, a question that could potentially change the tour hangs in the fall air.
Will Tiger Woods, who turns 50 on Dec. 30, play senior golf and, if so, how much will he play?
That question was clouded by Woods’ announcement on Saturday that he had undergone lumbar intervertebral surgery on Friday in New York City. It was the latest in a long series of surgeries for the 15-time champion, who underwent his sixth back surgery 13 months ago and will not play a PGA Tour event in 2025 after tearing his Achilles tendon in March.
“After experiencing pain and lack of mobility in my back, I consulted doctors and surgeons to have tests performed. The scans showed that I had a collapsed intervertebral disc in L4/5, fragments of the disc and a compromised spinal canal. I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday and I already know that I made a good decision for my health and my back,” Woods posted on social media on Saturday.
The PGA Tour Champions don’t need a bailout – insiders suggest this isn’t a serious hit to the tour’s bottom line – but Woods’ participation, however limited, would be a huge boost.
While he gave no indication of when he hopes to return to golf, the latest surgery will likely sideline him until the end of the year, if not longer. He was not previously listed as a participant in the Hero World Challenge he is hosting in December, and it calls into question his availability to compete in the PNC Championship with son Charlie in December as well.
Woods’ Jupiter Links team will play its first TGL match on January 13.
The matter of Woods’ potential presence on PGA Tour Champions is on hold for now, although his contemporaries hope he will eventually join them from time to time.
“It would actually suit him very well here,” Pádraig Harrington said before news of Woods’ latest surgery emerged.
The PGA Tour Champions don’t need a bailout – insiders suggest this isn’t a serious hit to the tour’s bottom line – but Woods’ participation, however limited, would be a huge boost.
Interest. Eyeballs. Tension.
Woods has hinted that he is willing to play a few senior events, if only to play it off with some of his old friends while getting to ride in a cart, but he has always been reluctant to reveal his playing schedule in advance.
Three years ago, Woods joked at Augusta that he was getting closer to the time when “I get the little buggy and [can] be there with Fred [Couples].”
When it was recently announced that Woods had signed a partnership deal with HR firm Insperity, speculation was rife as to whether he would play the Champions event hosted by the company in Houston, although the official announcement made no reference to that.
The fact that Woods has only played 10 official events since the start of 2022 tempers expectations, but his window to be competitive is shrinking.
Scott McCarron remembers talking to Jack Nicklaus in his first or second year on the PGA Tour.
“He says, ‘Hey, I have one regret in my life.’ I’m like, oh my god, what is that? He says, ‘I wish I would have played more on the Champions tour because once it’s over, it’s over,'” McCarron said.
How much Woods will potentially play on the PGA Tour Champions will depend on several things:
His health, especially his back and his right leg, which were badly damaged in a car accident; his desire; and his involvement in other efforts.
At Seminole Golf Club earlier this year, Ernie Els said he talked to Woods about what competitive golf looks like on the senior side, even going so far as to map out a potential schedule that Woods could play, knowing that Woods still wants to win more major championships.
“We want him here and I really believe that if he plays here he will really flourish again,” Els said near Prestonwood’s 18th green after posing for a final few photos with his amateur partners.
“Because you have a little bit of competition… they’re guys he’s been beating up all his life. These guys don’t really go away, like little hungry dogs, they’ll bite, but it’ll be good. And [he] can drive a cart without any hesitation and play golf courses where we can make some birdies. Get his confidence back and I think that little bit of play will serve him well.”
Since the $1.5 billion injection into PGA Tour Enterprises by Strategic Sports Group and the announcement of Brian Rolapp as new CEO earlier this year, change – both real and potential – has been a theme.
PGA Tour Champions are not exempt and Woods’ occasional presence could be the biggest change.
“It seems like it [the tour is] in quite good condition. I know they’re talking about downsizing everything. I know the new CEO wants to produce some numbers, but we have great sponsors,” said Els.
“You talk about Fortune 500 companies, we have them [10 are title sponsors] here, and look at the fun we’re having with these guys. So I don’t think our sponsors are going anywhere.”
Last week, SAS extended its sponsorship for another three years and 75 percent of the tour’s 28 events are committed through 2028, with Charles Schwab as the umbrella sponsor through 2033.
The recent news of the players’ pension fund being cut understandably provoked complaints from several players, but it demonstrates SSG’s intention to achieve double-digit annual returns on its investment.
But when Rolapp mentions scarcity as a priority, we can assume he’s not just talking about shrinking the PGA Tour schedule. Q-School for seniors has been eliminated and tightening the schedule of 28 events will certainly be evaluated.
“There’s a sweet spot,” Harrington said. “There’s a sweet spot in all these things. I definitely prefer fewer tournaments, more competition for those fewer tournaments, so that… only the best tournaments survive.”
The recent news of the players’ pension fund being cut understandably provoked complaints from several players, but it demonstrates SSG’s intention to achieve double-digit annual returns on its investment.
“That’s what these guys want,” Els said of the tour’s investors.
There’s also the longer-term question of whether the current generation of PGA Tour players will have the desire to play tournament golf after they turn 50, given the millions of dollars many of them now earn annually.
It’s a general question, but will Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth want to play after they turn 50? Rory McIlroy has already said something must have gone “terribly wrong” before he could play competitive senior golf.
That is why there is the Tiger issue, a stimulating subject as it so often is.
When a teasing fall chill arrived last week, the idea of what a 50-year-old Tiger Woods might do was hard to ignore.
“We would love it here,” Love said. ‘I hope he does [play]. We would even make carts mandatory so that he can get out immediately.’
© 2025 Global Golf Post LLC
#surgery #clouds #Woods #future #senior