Tiger Woods commits to THE PLAYERS, Wells Fargo

Tiger Woods is headed back to TPC Sawgrass and THE PLAYERS Championship, where he has authored some of the most unforgettable chapters of his storied career. A 79-time PGA TOUR winner who has missed significant time with injuries, Woods announced late Thursday afternoon that he will tee it up at THE PLAYERS for the first time since a T69 finish in 2015. He won the tournament in 2001 and 2013, and also won the 1994 U.S. Amateur at TPC Sawgrass. Injuries have limited the 14-time major winner, but Woods’ comeback at age 42 has been a big storyline this season. Although he finished a forgettable T32 at the Masters, he captivated fans at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (T5) and Valspar Championship (T2), where a birdie at the last would have forced a playoff in his first-ever start at the Valspar. The only player to win the FedExCup multiple times (2007, ’09), Woods is 50th in the current FedExCup standings and 91st in the Official World Golf Ranking. He has a 69.9 scoring average this season. His performance this season has been a pleasant surprise. Few knew what to expect after his most recent back surgery, a fusion operation that shelved him for most of 2017, but the procedure seems to have worked “I’m a walking miracle,â€� Woods has said more than once. His overriding goal was to be able to live without pain, but he’s been able to do so much more than that both on and off the course. Last month he was named captain of the 2019 U.S. Presidents Cup team, which will take on the Internationals at Royal Melbourne on Dec. 12-15. And in just the last week, Woods has given a kidsclinic at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, and a private golf lession to a Nepalese teenager in South Florida. Meanwhile, he’s been practicing amid his traditional post-Masters hiatus.   This has been a big season for comebacks on TOUR, with Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and others picking up victories after long droughts. A Woods victory at TPC Sawgrass would end one of the game’s most talked-about dry spells and move him ever closer to the TOUR’s all-time victories leader Sam Snead (82). One of Woods’ few flaws has been the long game, where he is 202nd in driving accuracy (51.97 percent) and 151st in strokes gained: off-the-tee (-.174) this season. TPC Sawgrass is demanding off the tee, though it will allow him to hit less than driver off many tees. The watery Pete Dye course may be even tougher on mediocre approach shots, though. “It’s disappointing that I didn’t hit the ball well enough,â€� Woods said at the Masters, where he faulted his imprecise iron play. “But to be able to just be out here competing again, if you had said that last year at this particular time, I would have said you’re crazy.â€�

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