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Thursday 16 February 2023
Tiger Woods returns to golf with the same belief he can win

By DOUG FERGUSON could no longer recover
AP Golf Writer the way it once did. Golf
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tiger is not a contact sport, but
Woods feels good enough it has become a young
to play at Riviera, his first man’s game.
tournament with a cut and Only two of the top 10
without a cart since the players in golf are in their
British Open last July. He 30s. The oldest is Rory Mc-
already is looking ahead Ilroy at 33.
to the Masters. And yes, he Woods can play. The ques-
thinks he can win. tion is whether he can
“I would not have put my- compete, whether he can
self out here if I didn’t think win. He remains at 82 ca-
I could beat these guys,” reer PGA Tour titles, a re-
Woods said Tuesday ahead cord he shares with Sam
of the Genesis Invitational, Snead, who was 67 when
which has attracted 19 of he made the cut at a PGA
the top 20 players in the Championship.
world. Part of Woods was an-
He also is well aware that noyed that he was cele-
he has not won since Octo- Tiger Woods tees off on the 4th hole during the final round of the PNC Championship golf tournament brated for making the cut
ber 2019, and that at age Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. in the Masters last year,
47 and with more surgeries Associated Press his first competition since
than major titles (15), time is a February 2021 car crash
running out. He knows that. accept it. Tom Brady lasted. He re- retired from the Denver outside Los Angeles shat-
He’s just not quite ready to He marvels at how long members when John Elway Broncos because his body tered bones in his right leg
and ankle.
“I’m there to get a W, OK?
So I don’t understand that
making the cut is a great
thing,” Woods said. “If I en-
tered the event, it’s always
to get a W.
There will come a point in
time when my body will
not allow me to do that
anymore, and it’s prob-
ably sooner rather than
later. But wrapping my
ahead around that transi-
tion and being the ambas-
sador role and just trying to
be out here with the guys,
no, that’s not in my DNA.”
He played that ambas-
sador role last year at the
Genesis Invitational as the
tournament host. He also is
leading the private player
meetings geared toward
building a new PGA Tour
model of elite tournaments
as a response to Saudi-
funded LIV Golf.
His announcement Friday
that he was playing led to
a scramble for media cre-
dentials. The back of the
press room in the Riviera
clubhouse was lined with
some two dozen photog-
raphers waiting for him to
show up for his news con-
ference.
Justin Rose watched in De-
cember as Woods played
with his son at the PNC
Championship, riding in a
cart. Woods has been say-
ing he can hit all the shots,
that it’s walking to them
that makes it difficult. q