Tiger Woods announced on Monday that he will officially make his return to professional golf in late November at his own charity's event, the 2017 Hero World Challenge.
Woods, who has not played competitive golf in nine months and was just recently given the all-clear by his doctor to play, is a five-time winner of the event and will compete along with 17 of his peers from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 in Albany, Bahamas. His announcement came, hilariously, from a committee of one.
"I am excited to return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge," Woods said in an announcement. "Albany is the perfect setting and it will be great to join this outstanding field. I want to thank Pawan Munjal and Hero MotoCorp for their continued support of this tournament and my foundation. I would also like to thank the fans for their unwavering support during my injury."
Joining Woods in the loaded field are Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar, Justin Rose, Alex Noren, Marc Leishman, Tommy Fleetwood, Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Kisner and Daniel Berger.
Woods withdrew from the Desert Dubai Classic after one round at the beginning of 2017. He shot a 77 in the first round, and he has not played a round on either the European Tour or PGA Tour since. He underwent his fourth back procedure in April, a fusion surgery that he said alleviated him of a lot of pain in his body.
Still, it's a bit of a surprise that we're going to see Woods this soon. At the Presidents Cup a month ago, he insinuated that there was no timetable and that he was going to take his comeback very slowly. Then over the course of the last four weeks, Woods had dropped several Twitter videos of himself hitting long irons and drivers. He even posted a video of him hitting his famous stinger that sent those on social media into an absolute tizzy.
More recently, Woods plead guilty to reckless driving and entered a diversion program for a DUI arrest in May to ensure the DUI did not go on his record. He will be on probation for a year and will have to hit a series of checkmarks to achieve, several of which he has already hit. Woods has noted that he also completed a private, intensive out-of-state program to get treatment for how he manages his prescription medication, which led to the DUI.
This will be the second year in a row we see Woods return to the Hero World Challenge, just as his old coach Hank Haney recently predicted. Last year, Woods played following a 16-month absence after his third back surgery. Woods shot 73-65-70-76, but man, that 65 was the stuff of dreams.
I have no such expectations this time around given how quickly all of his has unfolded, but either way, it's going to be tough not to watch whatever it is that takes place in the Bahamas.