There’s an element of time-as-flat-circle to all of this. In his WD statement, Woods said he still intends to play both the Match and the PNC. Woods’ embrace of the Match - originally Phil Mickelson’s baby - shows he’s here to defend the wall. They’re designed to grow the pie for the needle-movers who remain in the Tour establishment’s ecosystem, part of its pitch to keep pros home as opposed to defecting to LIV. But they’re designed to draw in a different audience than week-in, week-out PGA Tour events while rewarding those same players. Taken all together, Woods’ buy-in to these events means one thing: He has been leaning into a leadership role on the PGA Tour. Even in the hours after Woods’ WD announcement, Woods welcomed Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas as competitors. Woods is all-in on the TGL, too, a new tech-based golf league that will kick off on Monday nights in 2024. The significance of the event follows the player, in this case, rather than the other way around. The Hero, the Match and the PNC Championship are hardly major championships, but Woods creates his own interest. This was also supposed to mark the beginning of three events in three weeks headlined by Woods. Would it come at Riviera? Sawgrass? Augusta? Excitement would mount as to his next 72-hole appearance. He would look healthier than in his most recent appearance at St. Our expectations were actually relatively modest: If all went well this week, Woods would show some promise on the course, walk 72 holes without issue and beat at last a few of his 19 competitors. This was supposed to be the beginning of a Very Merry Tiger Season. But the announcement that came Monday afternoon - that Woods was a WD from his own tournament due to plantar fasciitis - was decidedly not part of the plan. There have been plenty of chapters, of course. This week in the Bahamas was supposed to be the beginning of Tiger Woods’ next chapter as a golfer. Tiger Woods is a WD at the Hero World Challenge.
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