Tiger Woods is the host at this week's Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club, and he hopped in the 18th hole tower to speak with Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo on Sunday's CBS broadcast.
Naturally, the topic of Woods' health came up and Nantz asked how close he is to returning; Woods joked about just trying to beat his 7-year-old son. "Close to beating Charlie?" said Woods. "Yeah, I'm close to beating Charlie."
When pressed, Tiger remained optimistic that he's on the right path in his recovery but noted that it's going to take time and patience this time around. Woods admitted to rushing back from previous injuries but noted that this time it's different due to his age and the fact that he's had three surgeries on the same part of his back.
"Well, I'm playing. I just need more time," said Woods. "I still need to get stronger, need to recover faster and that's just unfortunately going to take time, which I'm not a very patient person when it comes to that as you know over the years. Pushing through some of my injuries, pushing through some of my rehabs, I've come back and I've won. I've won major championships doing it that way but this one's different. This one I'm older, it takes a little longer to recover and to heal, and I'm going to do it right so I don't have another surgery."
He was then asked if there's the possibility that he won't play in 2016 at all, and while he still hopes to get back to competition before the year ends, he noted that it is a possibility he will miss the entire season.
"I don't know. I want to play. I'll put it that way, but I don't know if I will," said Woods. "But I do want to and I'm trying. I'm trying. Each day I'm doing my workouts, sometimes they're two or three times a day. I'm working my tail off. I've trimmed down. I'm still the same weight, but I've lost body fat. I've gained more lean muscle and I'm faster than I used to be, so all that's positive, but I still need to get now into golf shape. Which that's hitting ball after ball after ball and getting my golf pulses back."
Woods preaching patience with this recovery is a bit refreshing considering how many times we've seen him seemingly rush back from an injury only to have to take more time off. That said, with the season beyond the midway point, it's becoming very real that we may go a full year without seeing Tiger Woods play competitive golf.
