Tiger Woods may well “surprise everybody” and make his latest comeback this year, according to his good friend Notah Begay III – who even floated the idea of the great man using a golf cart.
Begay is Woods’ former college team-mate at Stanford and a close friend, so has more of an insight into the 15-time Major winner than most, and he’s “fairly certain” we’ll see him teeing it up again in 2022.
Speaking to SiriusXM's PGA Tour Radio, Begay said he thinks Woods will play in December’s PNC Championship with his son Charlie for a third year running, with Tiger’s own Hero World Challenge in November also a possibility.
"I know as soon as he feels like he can be competitive - I think he got a good sense of what it’s going to take this past year - we’ll see him," said Begay.
"We might see him one time this fall. He might surprise everybody."
Woods recently revealed 17 of the 20 players taking part in his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, and Begay feels the 46-year-old could well take up one of the three spots remaining. Even if that means the 82-time PGA Tour winner using a golf cart.
"I think he will," Begay said about Woods playing in the Bahamas. "We may see a late-minute introduction of a cart rule, that would be great - it will just be another chance for us to see how far he's come."
While the sight of Woods replicating John Daly and playing with the use of a cart may not be palatable to either golf purists of staunch Tiger fans – just having him back on the golf course again would be a huge boost to the sport.
Will Zalatoris recently pleaded with Woods to get a golf cart to prolong his career on the PGA Tour.
Woods’ return from the life-changing injuries sustained in his horrific car crash in February 2021 has been something approaching miraculous given the obvious pain and discomfort he’s still in.
He made the cut at the Masters and the PGA Championship, although he had to withdraw at Southern Hills after round three, before missing the cut at St Andrews at the 150th Open when he appeared to say his farewell to his favourite course coming down the 18th fairway.
At times it’s been hard to watch, with Begay explaining how tough it’s been for Woods to just be able to get a stable base to walk on, let alone play golf.
"Tiger is just steadily trying to find ways to get a little bit more stability in his leg," Begay said. "It was really presenting some major challenges at St. Andrews.
“I had a chance to talk to him during the round out there. It’s just constant discomfort. It’s just hard to focus on golf, which is hard enough, much less having to deal with the literal pain of your leg kind of aching throughout the day."
