Tiger Woods instantly becomes eligible for alternative golf tour as legend turns 50

Tiger Woods celebrates his 50th birthday on Tuesday and with that comes a decision on the direction of his golf career.

The 15-time Major winner is now eligible to compete in the PGA Tour Champions circuit – formally known as the Senior PGA Tour.

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The Champions circuit permits golfers to use carts while operating a 54-hole set-up for most of its tournaments which could be beneficial considering Woods’ glut of injuries.

Rivalries renewed

The Tour would see him compete against a host of former rivals such as Vijay Singh and Ernie Els.

And those already on the Tour have already opened the door to Tiger should he wish to take part.

“As a friend of Tiger’s, I would love to see him come out and play and compete with us,” said Darren Clarke. “I think he’d have a great time.

“I hope he does choose to come out and play and I think, stating the obvious, he would be a massive addition for the Champions Tour. He would bring a lot of eyes and people out to see us having a little bit of fun.”

Champions Tour player Jerry Kelly added: “I hope he’s healthy enough to be able to play anywhere, because it benefits our game when he’s playing. I want to watch him still, and selfishly, I’d love to watch him in the same group as me playing.

“It’s competitive out here, and that would go right into what he wants to do,” Kelly continued. “He still wants to be competitive. I know he wants to be competitive on the regular tour, but I think if he came out, he’d realise he’d get the same feelings here.”

Meanwhile, Stewart Cink, who won three PGA Tour Champions titles this year, said: “Woods already made his legacy. He’s not going to come out here and like, recreate a new legacy.

“But I think he would be able to strip it down to its purest form, and that’s just competition, and testing himself out.

“It would be a good way for him to test out his body and see how things are going, getting ready for some of his other tournaments, majors and whatnot. It would be huge.”

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Fitness concerns

Woods has yet to reveal whether or not he intends to participate but a return to full fitness is his primary concern.

He suffered a rupture of his left Achilles tendon in March while practising ahead of the Masters.

In October, Woods underwent a seventh back surgery to replace a disk in his lower back.

Woods’ ongoing health issues meant that for the first time in his career, he was unable to compete in a single PGA Tour tournament.

It remains unclear as to when Woods is likely to make his grand return to competitive golf despite recently telling reporters that he had just started putting and chipping and wasn’t close to being able to take full swings.

“Once I get a feel for practicing, exploding, playing, the recovery process, then I can assess where I’m going to play and how much I’ll play,” Woods told a press conference at the Hero World Challenge earlier this month.

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“I’m a way away from that part of it and that type of decision, that type of commitment level.”

Woods’ last appearance at a PGA Tour event came in July 2024 at the Open Championship at Royal Troon where he missed the cut.

Since then, he hasn’t played four rounds in an official tournament since his 60th-placed finish in the 2024 Masters.

You would have to go back to his victory at the 2019 Masters for Woods’ last top-20 finish where he picked up his fifth green jacket.

But for now, just being fit enough to play golf is the only thing in Woods’ sights heading into 2026.

“I’d like to come back to just playing golf again,” Woods said earlier this month. “I haven’t played golf in a long time.

“It’s been a tough year. I’ve had a lot of things happen on and off the golf course that’s been tough. And so my passion is to just play, I haven’t done that in a long time.”