Tiger Woods is about to make yet another return to competitive golf and his confidence this time around should make the younger guys on tour a little nervous.
During a press conference with the 14-time major champion on Tuesday, a reporter pointed out that the younger golfers on tour have never gone up against the real Tiger. His response should excite his fans and strike fear in his opponents.
Current generation: You’ve been put on notice. pic.twitter.com/Q3FNxSRYYe
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 28, 2017
“In an ideal world, I would like to have them feel what some of my past guys had to go against all those years,” Woods said. “I’d like to have them feel that same play.”
Back in October Woods announced that he would be returning to competition, for the second year in a row, at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, which benefits his own foundation. Not surprisingly many were apprehensive about his return given his history of coming back as a different golfer than the Tiger we once knew. But that’s expected after several surgeries and let’s not forget that he’s no longer in his 20s. Still he sounds optimistic about what he’s able to do now.
Tiger has been mixing it up with the young guns and having a lot of fun doing it. pic.twitter.com/RAOJqFk7KZ
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 28, 2017
“Last year I was still struggling with a little bit of pain and I was able to hit some good shots, able to play, but in looking back on it now, I look on it as playing in slow mo but it was as hard as I could hit it,” Woods said. “I thought I had some speed, thought I was playing halfway decent, shot some good scores, but now I’ve looked back on it and man, I didn’t even have much at all.”
“Now to come out here and be able to do what I’ve been doing the last few weeks with the guys, it’s been a lot of fun. I played some great rounds with the guys at home,” Woods said of his progression back to competition. “They’ve been fantastic, to be honest with you, because I’ve gotten to know a lot of them through the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cups and I’ve really become very close with a few of them. I played golf with Rory. I played golf with Berger, JT, Rickie, Dustin, and it was fun. It was fun to be able to do that again, which I hadn’t done in years.”
“I want my kids to feel the rush of me competing. Like Jack did with his kids, I would love to have one of mine on the bag.” – @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/XA6nf4jTin
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 28, 2017
Woods will make his official return to competition on Thursday. Hopefully he plays as well as he feels.