Tiger Woods turns 50 next month, which opens the door to a new golf arena for the 15-time major champion.
Woods has remained mum on the idea of teeing it up on the senior circuit, but several PGA Tour greats have encouraged him to give it a look. Jim Furyk is the latest PGA Tour Champions member to make a pitch to Woods.
“The first thing I’d say is you got to dip the toe,” Furyk told Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard. “When I turned 50, I still wanted to play the PGA Tour. I still thought I had a little. The first full year where I could play either tour, I played seven PGA Tour events and 15 Champions Tour events. Then, every year — I went to three [events}, then I went to one and then I went, yeah, it’s kind of time for me to move on. I think just dip a toe. Come see what it’s about. Come see if you like it.”
The 2003 U.S. Open champion noted that the 54-hole tournaments and cart rules make it less of a physical grind than the PGA Tour, which is a selling point for aging greats.
“It’s a lot less taxing — on all of us — it’s a lot less taxing on your body,” Furyk told Hoggard. “It’s less taxing on your body. Three-round tournaments. It’s a track meet. You shoot one or two under one day and you feel like, I’ve got to shoot 63 to get back in this tournament. But I would say dip a toe. Come see if you like it, enjoy it. And one by one almost everyone I have talked to — it might take a few months but one by one everyone says, you know what, I kind of like this Champions Tour thing. This is a little bit more fun, a little easier on my body. I get myself in contention a lot more often. I give myself chances to win golf tournaments. When you’re 50 years old, it’s fun, right? That’s why we all played the game to have an opportunity to make history and win events.”
Earlier this year, Ernie Els offered a light-hearted challenge to Woods to join the senior circuit and see if he could still dominate his contemporaries. Jack Nicklaus and Bernhard Langer have both suggested Woods will eventually tee it up on the PGA Tour Champions.
Should that eventually be the case, PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady told Golf Channel’s Damon Hack that the circuit is prepared to handle everything that comes with Tiger Woods at an event.
“The answer is yes, we’re ready. We’re well prepared,” Brady said on Golf Channel about Woods’ potential senior circuit debut. “We’ve done some white boarding over the past year in preparation for Tiger turning 50, and if and when he plays, our tournaments will be prepared.”
For now, Woods’ plan to return to competitive golf is unknown. He did not play on the PGA Tour this season after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon in March. In September, Woods announced that he’d undergone a disc replacement surgery on his back.
Furyk remembers what it was like when Woods arrived on the PGA Tour scene and changed everything. Should Woods even decide to dabble on the PGA Tour Champions, Furyk knows that it will be a massive boon to the senior circuit.
“Huge impact,” Furyk told Hoggard. “You remember when he came to the PGA Tour, I don’t think any of us had any idea. It hit us like a ton of bricks as far as how fast things were moving, security, fans, the excitement. But the economic impact on the tour, on the cities that he played in, the events that he played in was astronomical. For us, I think if he does indeed decide to play some events, just being prepared and being ready is step one. But it would be a huge boost for our tour.”
Added Furyk: “Just because we’re old doesn’t mean we’re not competitive anymore. We loosened up a little bit, but it’s still highly competitive out there, and it’s fun that we still have that opportunity.”
You can watch Furyk’s talk with Golf Channel here.