What Rex Hoggard noticed about Tiger Woods as he walked down the stairs to congratulate Scottie Scheffler at the Hero World Challenge

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The Hero World Challenge was dealt a blow ahead of the event with Tiger Woods confirming that he was not ready to play having undergone surgery after The Open Championship.

Tiger Woods is, of course, the host of the Hero World Challenge. And it appeared that the original plan was for the 15-time major champion to make his return for the tournament in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, the 48-year-old decided to delay his comeback.

Woods has sadly not been able to stave off injuries over the past 16 years. And it seems that the long list of surgeries have taken their toll on him, with Woods only playing in five events all season. He only managed to make the cut at the Masters.

The 2019 Masters showed that it is incredibly dangerous to ever write Woods off. But clearly, there are question marks over whether he will be able to enjoy the kind of run of luck with his body which allows him to play often enough to become competitive again.

Promising signs from Tiger Woods after the Hero World Challenge

Certainly, plenty of golf fans will be looking out for signs that Woods is moving in the right direction. And speaking to Golf Today, Rex Hoggard noted how he appeared to be moving after Scottie Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge.

“I think the fans definitely want to see him play still. But I think no-one wants it more than Tiger Woods. He is driven by competition. And I will say this, I was impressed with the way he bounded down the stairs on Sunday afternoon to go to the 18th green to congratulate Scottie Scheffler. He is moving better than I’ve seen him move in recent years,” he said.

“But as Lav’s just pointed out, the body’s not cooperating. I think he’s driven, and when we get a situation where he’s going to show up at Augusta National, and everybody’s going to be fixated on what he could possibly do because we’ve seen it so many times. But I don’t think anybody wants it more than Tiger.”

How many surgeries Woods has had over the last 16 years

The big question mark is whether Woods’ body has dealt with too much damage to recover enough to allow him to play against the world’s best. No-one wants to see him struggling physically in the way that he was at times at the Masters, with the revised schedule doing him few favours.

Most would have long retired had they put their body through the stress which Woods has over the years, with more than 10 surgeries since the start of 2008.

If Woods can get his body into a position where he can play 72 holes with very little pain, it could be a game-changer. Ultimately, he probably needs to be able to play a number of tournaments in fairly quick succession to properly shake off the cobwebs.

There is major doubt over what his future looks like right now. But hopefully the final chapter of Woods’ career at the top is yet to be written.