When will Tiger Woods come back? That seems to be the question that is plaguing the minds of many golf fans around the world right now. But that question seemed to have gotten an unfortunate answer of sorts, all thanks to the field that was announced recently by the PNC Championship. Couple that with the 17-man field of the Hero World Challenge that was released back in October, and it’s almost certain that the golfer won’t be teeing up this year anymore. But no worries, the 15-time major champ, still has a chance to make it back to the field for the event in Albany.

The Hero World Challenge is set to kick off on December 5, Thursday, and will go on till December 8, Sunday. There are just two weeks left until the start of the Tiger Woods-hosted tournament. Interestingly, the event has yet to announce the three golfers who will be teeing it up with the rest of the field in the Bahamas. The chances are there that one of those three could be Woods as he staged his comeback for the HWC in the past as well.

As of now, only a total of 17 golfers have been confirmed for the 20-man event. They include the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Sahith Theegala, Keegan Bradley, Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre, Sam Burns, Brian Harman, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Tom Kim, Aaron Rai, Billy Horschel, Matthieu Pavon, and Akshay Bhatia. Yes, you counted that right! Three more names are remaining for the number to reach 20!

Why isn’t Tiger Woods in the field? Well, we can only assume it’s due to the recent microdecompression surgery that he had to undergo back in September. It was done so to relieve the nerve impingement in his lumbar spine. Back then, he had revealed through his X handle that Dr. Sheeraz Qureshi of the Hospital of Special Surgery had performed the surgery to remedy the back pain that had plagued him throughout the season.

“The surgery went smoothly,” divulged Woods back in September. “I’m hopeful this will help alleviate the back spasms and pain I was experiencing throughout most of the 2024 season.” Maybe he hasn’t recovered as much as his fans had expected him to. And that might be why he isn’t yet on the list of teams that are set to tee off at the PNC Championship in December.

Tiger Woods and their son, Charlie, were absent from the PNC Championship field

The PNC Championship recently released the teams who would be teeing it up at the PGA Tour Champions event in December. Unfortunately, out of the 18 teams that were confirmed, the father-son duo of Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods were not seen anywhere. But there seems to be yet hope for the legendary golfer and his son, for two spots remain in the 2024 edition of the event, which would be confirmed soon enough. The only question is whether the 48-year-old and his son would take the same.

But in the unfortunate of cases, if the golfer fails to make a comeback in both of these events, then the fans will only be able to catch him in TGL. Yes, that’s right. The same tech-infused league created by none other than Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will kick off in January 2025. So Tiger Woods fans, keep your hopes up for the time being!