What was noticed about Tiger Woods the day he announced he wouldn’t be playing the Hero World Challenge

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Those hoping to see Tiger Woods make his return to golf at the Hero World Challenge were left disappointed on Monday when he announced that he would not be playing at the event in December.

Of course, Tiger Woods is the host of the Hero World Challenge – the event which sees a very small field take on Albany Golf Course. The 15-time major champion is also a five-time winner of the event.

Unfortunately, it was confirmed this week that Woods will not be playing as he announced that Justin Thomas, Jason Day and Nick Dunlap would complete the 20-man field ahead of next month’s staging.

Obviously, Woods has had a torrid time with injury over the last few years. And with that, the 48-year-old was only able to compete in a handful of events in 2024 – with the most recent appearance being at The Open Championship where Woods was one of the many big names to miss the cut.

What was noticed about Tiger Woods as he announces he won’t be playing the Hero World Challenge

With Woods not one to provide regular updates on social media, many fans may have been concerned about his condition following the news. But speaking on the Fore Play Podcast Plus, Frankie Borrelli suggested that he is more optimistic having been on the course with Woods on the day the announcement was made.

“I’ve given this a lot of thought actually Trent, that news was coming out – so Tiger Woods has announced that he’s not playing in the Hero. We found that out today while being with him. Now take that as you may,” he said.

“We were out with Tiger Woods today, and we’ve heard a lot of things. If we weren’t there, we would have probably been saying, ‘this is a disaster that he’s not playing the Hero’. But now, after being there, I think it’s going to be okay.

“He had that surgery, and I just think he hasn’t had enough rounds to really play professional golf yet, but I feel like a lot of the response is like, ‘oh my god, it’s the end’. We were actually physically with him today, and I don’t think that’s the case.”

How Woods fared during his five tournaments in 2024

It is promising to hear that Woods does not appear to have suffered any kind of setback in his recovery. He will be desperate to be competitive again in 2025, and will surely know that a schedule similar to the one he had in 2024 is unlikely to help him.

Woods made just five starts – including all four majors – and only managed to complete 72 holes at one of those appearances.

The difficultly is that he clearly needs to play more if he is going to compete again, but he was simply not able to rely on his body throughout 2024. So it is going to be extremely challenging to break out of that cycle.

Hopefully, stepping aside ahead of the Hero World Challenge is actually just a part of the process of Woods gearing up to get back out there more often in 2025.