(Reuters) – Tiger Woods said on Sunday he expects to be able to play one event per month in 2024 after making his return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
The 15-time major winner finished 18th in the 20-player field at the tournament, which he hosts for the benefit of his charity.
It was the former world number one’s first event since withdrawing during the Masters in April due to injury before he underwent ankle surgery.
The 47-year-old has kept a limited competition schedule after a 2021 car crash left him with a serious leg injury and he said the plan for next year had been one tournament a month.
“Once a month seems reasonable,” he added. “It gives me a couple of weeks to recover and a week to tune up. Maybe I can get into the rhythm,” he told Golf channel.
He said he was looking forward to playing in the PNC Championship, formerly the Father/Son Challenge, from Dec. 14 in Orlando along with his son Charlie.
Woods, who felt “mentally rusty” after first day’s play on Thursday, said he was “ecstatic” how the tournament turned out.
“Every day I got faster into the round. The first day it took me a while to get a handle on it. Second day was faster and today was right away,” he said in a press conference.
“I feel like my game’s not that far off but I need to get in better shape.
“I don’t have the bone pain that I did, but I still have to go through with the same protocols. It takes a long time, that’s the unfortunate thing about aging,” he said.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
