tiger woods pga tour south park

• The A.V. Club
• The Takeout
• The Inventory

When South Park Got an EA Sports Game Pulled off the Shelves

Long before golfer Tiger Woods thought it'd be a good idea to go sticking his dick in anything with a hole and a pulse, his video game franchise was embroiled in a scandal of a different kind.

The harmless kind. Involving Jesus, Santa Claus and a cartoon.

In 1998, a young Tiger Woods was bursting onto the world sporting scene, and to cash in EA Sports released the very first game in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series, which is still running today.

To be released on the PC and PlayStation, it was hoped the game would reinvigorate a sports genre that had lain dormant since the early 1990s, Wood's fresh face and a new take on golf gaming helping to make Tiger Woods PGA Tour 99 stand out from the crowd.

Yet only a few months after the game's release, in January 1999, the PlayStation version of the game was pulled off store shelves as part of a mass recall. Not the most auspicious start to what was hoped to be a blockbuster franchise for both the golfer and EA Sports.

Why was it yanked? Because somebody at EA Sports thought it would be funny to slip an episode of South Park onto the game disc. And not just any episode; the crude, uncensored South Park "pilot" commonly known as Jesus vs. Santa (which you can see here , though know it's NSFW ).

While the episode wasn't viewable from the game itself, or in a PlayStation, if you put the game disc into a PC and opened the file Zzdummy.dat you'd be able to view the short .

Calling the episode "objectionable to consumers", EA ended up recalling the first 100,000 copies of the PlayStation version of the game (the PC version was unaffected).

This would prove to be only the first event in a long "relationship" between South Park's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and EA Sports, which flared up recently when in 2010 South Park lampooned Tiger's extra-marital affairs with a video game mock-up (which you can see above). An episode from this year also went after EA Sports and its boss Peter Moore over football licenses.

Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.

Official South Park Studios Wiki | South Park Studios

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods had it all - a successful pro golfing career, a beautiful wife, millions of dollars in endorsement deals. That all changed when his adultery was exposed, and despite an apology campaign and an entertaining and well-selling PGA tour game, ultimately Tiger Woods' reputation was destroyed. In a bid to regain his old reputation, he joined Tom Cruise and two-hundred other celebrities in trying to sue the town of South Park for slander.

Memorable Quotes

• "I am so happy that I am cured, and no longer have any desire to have sex with anyone but my beautiful wife." ( Sexual Healing )

Featured Episodes

• Sexual Healing (s14e01)
• 200 (s14e05)

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

ZZDUMMY.DAT (mp4 conversion) from Tiger Woods 99: PGA Tour Golf

Video item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

Download options, in collections.

Uploaded by Willo's Floppy Drive on June 30, 2023

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

South Park Archives

South Park (Not Suitable For Children) is now streaming on Paramount Plus!

• Research: Read the Special , Trivia and Script Pages.
• See: Look at the Image Page or watch on Paramount+
• Discuss: Discuss the special on the South Park Discord .
• Contribute: Learn more on how to Create a Fandom Account and help us document the special & get less ads as a registered editor!

• Female Characters
• One-off Characters
• Adult Characters
• Sports Celebrities

Elin Nordegren

• View history

Elin Nordegren is the Swedish-born ex-wife of Tiger Woods . She appears in the Season Fourteen episode, " Sexual Healing ".

• 1 Background
• 2 Appearance
• 3.1 Tiger Woods
• 5 References

Background [ ]

In the episode " Sexual Healing ", Elin primarily appears as a video game character in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for Xbox 360, which is not so much a golf game as a two-player fighting game. In the game, Elin goes around beating Tiger with a golf club for his many infidelities in assorted venues such as their house, the golf course, and news conferences. The game is highly popular among the boys , who find it far more entertaining than actual golf games.

Throughout the episode, numerous men, including Tiger Woods, attempt to make the claim that they are not responsible for their sexual behavior, but rather that it's caused by something outside their control, such as addiction. She later appears with Tiger during his press conference in which he claims that he is 'cured' of his sex addiction (thanks to the death of the " Wizard Alien " responsible), and that she now has no reason to get revenge on him by having affairs with numerous other men.

She gives him a shifty-eyed look, which implies she still plans to, or already has. Apparently, with Tiger now behaving himself, her character avatar is removed from the game, making it a boring golf game once again.

Appearance [ ]

She has blonde hair and can usually be seen wearing a lavender-colored sweater. Her weapon of choice, naturally, is a golf club.

Relationships [ ]

Tiger woods [ ].

Strained. After Elin finds out about Tiger Woods receiving a text message from "some low-life hooker" on Thanksgiving, she goes on a rampage, chasing him around the house with a golf club. After Tiger Woods announced his having been "cured" of sexual addiction and his forthcoming return to golf, it appeared that they were reconciled, though probably only in public.

It should be noted that in real-life, Elin divorced Woods in August 2010, several months after "Sexual Healing" aired.

• Elin to Tiger Woods: "You motherfucker! I never should have married you!"
• Elin to Tiger Woods: "Why-a the fuck are you getting a text-a message from some-a low-life-a hooker on Thanksgiving?!"
• Elin to Tiger Woods: [swinging at the left rear door of Woods' car] "Open the door, you motherfucker!"

References [ ]

• ↑ "Sexual Healing" on IMDB .
• 1 Kenny McCormick
• 2 Eric Cartman
• 3 Kyle Broflovski

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Sweepstakes

'South Park' invades the 'PGA Tour'

'South Park' invades the 'PGA Tour' -- A sneaky employee's addition of the cartoon gang leads Electronic Arts to recall PlayStation's ''Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour''

Tiger Woods is set to tee off at Sawgrass. The crowds hush, Tiger readies himself, and…in waddles TV’s South Park gang, trailed by Santa Claus, Jesus, and, of course, Olympic skater Brian Boitano. Okay, the scenario’s not quite that twisted. But software maker Electronic Arts did issue a Jan. 14 recall of about 100,000 copies of the PlayStation version of Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour after learning that someone had stashed the infamous 1995 South Park precursor, The Spirit of Christmas , on the discs. Finding the foulmouthed five-minute ‘toon takes some effort: A user must put the disc into a computer’s CD drive, then deliberately open the file — some work for a clip routinely found on the Net. A rep for EA calls the incident ”an unfortunate and odd thing” — and not without consequences. One of the game’s developers was found to be the guilty party; EA says it has taken ”appropriate action.” As for the game itself, those retrieved from stores have been destroyed — and EA has offered replacements or refunds to any consumer who returns a copy. The grand total received so far? One. Cartman, evidently, needed the cash for snackie cakes.

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SouthParkS14E1SexualHealing

Recap / South Park S 14 E 1 Sexual Healing

Edit locked.

Original air date: 3/17/2010

"Sexual Healing" contains examples of:

• All Men Are Perverts : Everyone pretends this is not the case and wonder why rich, successful men are going out and have sex with as many women as possible.
• Comically Missing the Point : When an expert tells the boys that as sex addicts they will likely end up choking themselves while masturbating dressed up like Batman, Butters tells him he doesn't want to have to buy a Batman costume.
• The Conspiracy : Whenever there is a news story about a rich and famous man sleeping around with many women, all the men loudly express their disgust at his actions and claim they would never do such a thing, right before their eyes glance at the nearest woman to see if she bought it. Eventually the government decrees that these rich and famous men are only sleeping around because they have sex addiction, caused by a wizard alien casting a spell. President Obama: We watched... as sex addiction ran rampant through our country. It devastated families. But once again, our great country has risen up as one. The wizard alien... is dead. Sex addiction is no more. And if a rich celebrity is caught again trying to screw lots of women, we will know it isn't because men are just like that, it's because a wizard alien has cast his mighty spell.
• Country Matters : Tiger Woods calls his wife this and it is not censored.
• Currency Conspiracy : The Head Scientist analyzes any reason why money causes men to become sex-addicts and shows a zoomed image of a $100 bill to reveal the picture of Independence Hall. Obama then reveals that that the Roswell Aliens carried a virus that was barely contained , but has been set loose by an Alien Wizard in Independence Hall. Of course, the whole thing is itself a conspiracy drummed up by the nation's men so that they don't have to take responsibility for their bad sexual habits.
• Distracted by the Sexy : The testing to see if students have the disease involves looking at a suggestive picture and asking them what color handkerchief a women is holding. If the student answers "What handkerchief?", they are considered to be sex addicts.
• Do Wrong, Right : The training course for sex addicts doesn't actually teach them to control their urges; it just teaches them how to avoid getting caught.
• Genre Shift : The video game franchise Tiger Woods PGA Tour becomes a pastiche of fighting games based on Woods' marital infidelity. Cartman, Stan, and Kenny loved the game. Once Woods got over his sexual addiction at the end of the episode, the next PGA Tour game went back to the status quo, to the boys' inevitable dismay.
• Golf Clubbing : Part of the new Tiger Woods' game.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade : One of the SWAT team members falls victim to this after having had enough of the absurd theories regarding the the supposed sex addiction outbreak. He argues that men wanting to have sex with multiple partners is simply an inherent part of the male ego and that while cheating shouldn't be condoned, it can at least be understood. The other men that are present respond by tying him up, gagging him, and dressing him up as a "wizard alien" before having an unwitting Kyle and Butters shoot him to death.
• Never My Fault : The men all believe there is a cause for the sex craze and don't blame themselves. When Kyle points out that everyone needs to take responsibility for their actions, they wonder what the hell he's talking about.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught : Butters and Kyle attend a class to "cure" themselves of their sex addictions, but the class only teaches them ways to prevent themselves from getting caught rather than addressing the problem.
• Placebo Effect : The murder of the "wizard alien" causes the sex addicts to truly believe that they've been cured of their addiction.
• Running Gag : Elin Nordegren shrieking "You motherfucker! I never should have married you!" while Tiger Woods is in the middle of something, and starting a fight with him.
• Not to mention the porno movie he saw in 'Return of the Fellowship of the Lord of the Rings to the Two Towers'.
• Take That! : This episode is dedicated to making fun of celebrities and highly successful people for cheating on their wives and/or using their status to have sex with tons of women, with Tiger Woods especially being put through the wringer.
• They Killed Kenny Again : Kenny ends up doing this to himself after Dr. Tonton explains what autoerotic asphyxiation is, complete with dressing up in a Batman costume .
• Wizards from Outer Space : The government suggests that an alien wizard is casting a spell that makes men so promiscuous. The episode ends with them dressing up a SWAT officer (who had earlier expressed his opinion that none of this was necessary) as one, whom they then have Kyle and Butters shoot and kill.

Video Example(s):

Autoerotic asphyxiation.

Kenny ends up doing this to himself after Dr. Tonton explains what autoerotic asphyxiation is, complete with dressing up in a Batman costume.

Example of: Erotic Asphyxiation

• South Park S13E14 "Pee"
• Recap/South Park
• South Park S 14 E 2 The Tale Of Scrotie Mc Boogerballs

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

How well does it match the trope?

Example of:

Media sources:

11,241--> Report

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• Backchannel
• Newsletters
• WIRED Insider
• WIRED Consulting

Wired News Report

South Park Clip Forces a Recall

Electronic Arts is recalling 100,000 copies of Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour for the PlayStation, after the world's largest videogame software company discovered that the game contains an unauthorized expletive-laden excerpt from South Park.

A computer user would have to drop the PlayStation CD into a PC and do a bit of hacking to access the clip. But Electronic Arts of Redwood City, California, is recalling the CD anyway.

The unauthorized addition is South Park's pilot -- "The Spirit of Christmas," in which Jesus Christ and Santa Claus get into a fistfight over the true meaning of Christmas. The clip can be found easily on the Net.

Electronic Arts found out about the clip on 14 January, when a listener called WFLZ, a radio station in Tampa, Florida, and told the hosts of the morning show about it. Within hours of verifying the information, Electronic Arts began the recall.

The company doesn't expect the financial impact of the recall to be material, said Pat Becker, director of corporate communications. The company is still trying to figure out how the clip got in there.

William Turton

Dell Cameron

Brian Barrett

John Gravois

Aarian Marshall

Kate Knibbs

Joel Khalili

Steven Levy

Tiger Woods Makes PGA TOUR Season Debut at Genesis Invitational, Exclusively on PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+

• Coverage of TOUR’s third Signature Event this year begins tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. ET
• Enhanced Main Feed features Woods, Thomas, Woodland on Thursday, Friday
• Expanded Marquee Groups and Featured Groups include eight of top 10 players in world
• Subscribe to ESPN+ on the ESPN App, ESPN.com and connected TV devices

Tiger Woods will make his first appearance at a PGA TOUR event this season, exclusively on PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ tomorrow, February 15, at The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

• Live, four-feed coverage begins on ESPN+ 10:15 a.m. ET , and continues through the final round on Sunday, February 18.
• Woods, the event’s player-host, will be featured in enhanced Main Feed coverage , teeing off at 12:25 p.m. ET , in a group with two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland .

Expanded Marquee Groups and Featured Groups on ESPN+ include eight of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and world No. 2 Rory McIlroy , along with Viktor Hovland (No. 4), Xander Schauffele (No. 5), Wyndham Clark (No. 6), Patrick Cantlay (No. 7), Max Homa (No. 8), and Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 9).

• The tournament field at The Genesis Invitational this week includes 15 major champions, 54 TOUR winners, six FedExCup Champions, and 41 of the top 50 players in the world .
• The Featured Holes feed will showcase Riviera’s par-3 Nos. 4, 14 and 16, and the famous par-4 10th, a drivable, risk-reward hole considered one of the best short par-4’s in all of golf .

PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will also feature enhanced Main Feed and expanded Marquee Groups coverage at the TOUR’s five remaining Signature Events in 2024: the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship, the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, and Travelers Championship.

Thursday, February 15 Main Feed | 10:15 a.m. ET Featured Holes | 11 a.m. ET

• Tiger Woods – 82 PGA TOUR wins (tied for most all-time), 15-time major winner, 41 DP World Tour wins (third most all-time), 11-time PGA TOUR Player of the Year, two-time FedExCup Champion
• Justin Thomas – Two-time PGA Championship winner (2022, 2017), 15-time TOUR winner, 2017 FedExCup Champion, 2017 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year
• Gary Woodland – 2019 U.S. Open champion, four-time TOUR winner

Marquee Groups | 12 noon ET

• Nick Taylor – Won last week’s WM Phoenix Open, four-time TOUR winner
• Viktor Hovland – No. 4 world ranking, won three times in 2023 (Memorial Tournament, BMW Championship, TOUR Championship), six-time TOUR winner, two DP World Tour victories
• Sam Burns – Five-time TOUR winner
• Jordan Spieth – No. 12 world ranking, three-time major champion, 13-time PGA TOUR winner, 2015 FedExCup Champion
• Tom Kim – No. 17 world ranking, three-time TOUR winner
• Patrick Cantlay – No. 7 world ranking, eight-time TOUR winner, 2021 FedExCup champion

Featured Groups | 12:30 p.m. ET

• Ludvig Åberg – No. 11 world ranking, TOUR winner (2023 RSM Classic), former world No. 1 amateur
• Nick Hardy – TOUR winner (2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Davis Riley)
• Christiaan Bezuidenhout – Three wins on DP World Tour
• Jason Day – No. 19 world ranking, 12 PGA TOUR victories, 2015 PGA Championship winner
• Tony Finau – Six-time TOUR winner, won three times in 2022 (3M Open, Rocket Mortgage Classic, Texas Children’s Houston Open)
• Brendon Todd – Three-time TOUR winner

At 4 p.m. ET , coverage will transition to two Featured Group and two Featured Hole streams.

• Featured Group – Tiger Woods/Justin Thomas/Gary Woodland

(When Woods, Thomas and Woodland complete their round, coverage will follow the Rory McIlroy/Wyndham Clark/Max Homa group, in progress.)

• Rory McIlroy – No. 2 world ranking, four-time major champion, 24-time TOUR winner, three-time and defending FedExCup champion, three-time PGA TOUR Player of the Year
• Wyndham Clark – No. 6 world ranking, 2023 U.S. Open champion, three-time TOUR winner
• Max Homa – No. 8 world ranking, six-time TOUR winner
• Featured Group – Jordan Spieth/Patrick Cantlay/Tom Kim

(When Spieth, Cantlay and Kim complete their round, coverage will follow the Collin Morikawa/Matt Fitzpatrick/Scottie Scheffler group, in progress.)

• Collin Morikawa – No. 14 world ranking, 2021 Open Champion, 2020 PGA Championship winner, six-time TOUR winner
• Matt Fitzpatrick – No. 9 world ranking, 2022 U.S. Open champion, two-time TOUR winner, nine wins on DP World Tour
• Scottie Scheffler – No. 1 world ranking, 2023 THE PLAYERS winner, 2022 Masters champion, six-time TOUR winner
• Featured Hole – No. 10 | Par 4
• Featured Hole – No. 16 | Par 3

Friday, February 16 Main Feed | 10:15 a.m. ET Featured Holes | 11 a.m. ET

• Featuring Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Gary Woodland ( Tee time: 2:54 p.m. ET)  
• Collin Morikawa/Matt Fitzpatrick/Scottie Scheffler
• Rory McIlroy/Wyndham Clark/Max Homa

Featured Groups | 10:45 p.m. ET

• Jason Day/Tony Finau/Brendon Todd
• Sahith Theegala – No. 20 world ranking, TOUR winner (2023 Fortinet Championship), 2020 Haskins Award and Ben Hogan Award winner
• Xander Schauffele – No. 5 world ranking, seven-time TOUR winner, Olympic Gold medalist, won three times in 2022 (Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Travelers Championship, Genesis Scottish Open)
• Tommy Fleetwood – No. 13 world ranking, seven-time winner on the DP World Tour
• Featured Group – Rory McIlroy/Wyndham Clark/Max Homa

(When McIlroy, Clark and Homa complete their round, coverage will follow the Spieth, Cantlay and Kim, in progress.)

The Genesis Invitational | Exclusively on PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+

PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will follow a similar schedule Saturday and Sunday when pairings are announced.

The four feeds available on PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ include:

• Main Feed – The primary tournament coverage stream, showcasing the best action from across the course, with two dedicated booth announcers, a dedicated walking announcer and coverage drawn from all cameras at the event.
• Marquee Group – Every shot from each player in the group, with two booth announcers and one walking announcer calling the action.
• Featured Holes – Exclusive coverage of key par 3 holes and the course’s iconic, signature holes.
• Featured Groups – Traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage following two concurrent featured groups, with two booth announcers and one walking announcer.

PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ In this third year of PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+, fans will again have access to more than 4,300 live and exclusive hours covering 35 tournaments in 2024, including all eight of the TOUR’s Signature Events and at least 28 tournaments with four full days of coverage with four simultaneous live feeds each day. PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ is part of the PGA TOUR’s nine-year domestic media rights portfolio announced in March 2020 .

All ESPN+ subscribers have access to PGA TOUR LIVE, at no additional cost, in addition to more than 32,000 other live sporting events, acclaimed studio programs, original series and documentaries, as well as the complete library of ESPN 30 for 30 films and more than 1,500 exclusive written articles on ESPN.com.

About PGA TOUR By showcasing golf’s greatest players, the PGA TOUR engages, inspires and positively impacts our fans, partners and communities worldwide.

The PGA TOUR, headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, co-sanctions tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Americas and administers PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry and PGA TOUR University. TOUR members represent the world’s best players, hailing from 28 countries and territories. Showcasing the biggest moments in the sport with history and legacy on the line, the PGA TOUR has long-term domestic distribution partnerships for broadcast coverage on CBS, NBC and Golf Channel and video streaming service on ESPN+. Internationally, PGA TOUR coverage is available across 200+ countries and territories in 28 languages via 44 broadcast and digital partners. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations to maximize charitable giving, and to date, tournaments across all Tours have generated more than $3.93 billion.

Fans can follow the PGA TOUR on the new PGA TOUR app and PGATOUR.COM, and on social media channels, including  Facebook , Instagram (in  Spanish , Korean and Japanese ), LinkedIn , TikTok , X (in English and Spanish ), WhatsApp (in English and Spanish ),  WeChat ,  Weibo ,  Toutiao ,  Douyin and  LINE .

About ESPN+ ESPN+ is the No. 1 sports streaming platform, serving fans in the U.S. with exclusive access to more than 32,000 live sports events each year, an unmatched library of on-demand replays and acclaimed original content, and premium written articles by the top reporters and analysts from ESPN.com. Fans sign up to ESPN+ for just $10.99 a month (or $109.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com or in the ESPN App on mobile and connected devices. For more visit the ESPN+ Press Kit .

Related Media Kits

Tiger Woods '99

Tiger woods 1999 guide, images & screenshots.

Tiger Woods '99 News

Advertisement

Without tiger woods, the players championship misses an important part of its spectacle, share this article.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The darn shame of it all is not seeing Tiger Woods on the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass has become par for the course.

When 144 golfers tee it up Thursday on the 50th anniversary of the Players Championship , it will mark a Woods no-show for the fifth consecutive year, the longest stretch of absences for any former No. 1-ranked golfer still eligible to play in the PGA Tour’s signature event.

Many Tour insiders thought the long-standing gold standard for golf excellence would make it for the Players’ golden anniversary. They felt the date was ideal for Tiger to use this week to tune up his game for the Masters, getting enough rest to be ready for the year’s first major.

But at 48, with so much scar tissue built up from two decades of body breakdowns, Woods seems less inclined to trust his body to hold up.

So the Players will go on again without him, leaving many to wonder if that closing 69 in 2019 and tie for 30th place will be his last competitive round on the Stadium Course.

“I do miss him,” said Billy Horschel, counted among Woods’ good friends on Tour. “It’s sort of fun to have a little jab at him, he throws some jabs at you, then you throw some jabs at him. It’s just fun. We all know when Tiger is playing, the atmosphere and energy that is felt throughout the grounds at a golf tournament. It’s unlike any other I’ve ever been a part of.

“We have a lot of great players in today’s game of golf, but Tiger’s the needle, he’s the dial, he’s everything that encompasses moving the needle.”

Sure, we’ve all known for a good while now that Tiger is approaching the end of one of the most stupendous careers in all of sports.

But the Tour would still love for Woods to receive a proper sendoff from the fans at its most prestigious event. Whether that happens remains a bigger mystery with each passing year.

As his body keeps betraying him and Woods’ priorities shift away from playing competitively, the more likely it seems that a fitting goodbye to the Players may not fit into his schedule.

Next year, maybe?

Horschel is holding out hope that circumstances can align for Tiger to tee it up one more time at the Players.

Normally, his eligibility for the tournament from his 2019 Masters victory would have expired this year, but Woods gets an extra year due to COVID-19. Thus, he’s eligible for the last time in 2025 without having to win a Tour event or finish in the top 125 in FedEx Cup points.

Otherwise, the only avenue of entry is either by winning the Senior Players Championship after turning 50, which seems unlikely, or the Tour creating an unprecedented special exemption category for Woods to get into the Players.

“If there was one guy in this world that should be able to play any event he wanted to play, it’s Tiger,” said Horschel. “Whenever Tiger wants to f—– play, he should play.

“To allow him to play whenever he wants and make a special category for that one week of the year, I have no problem with that. I don’t think any guy out here would have a problem with that.

“Without Tiger, we aren’t sitting here playing for what we play for now. Jack [Nicklaus] and Arnie [Palmer] did a whole bunch to get the PGA Tour to a certain spot. Tiger came in and has taken it to an infinite level that no one could have imagined 30 years ago. Whenever he wants to go play somewhere and he’s not in, you let the guy in.”

Tiger Woods at No. 17 during the final round of the 2007 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: Kelly Jordan/Florida Times-Union)

Sounds good in theory, and nobody questions that Woods deserves special consideration for all he’s done to advance the game, but there remains one holdup: Tiger.

Not just his body’s physical ability to do it, but will Woods even accept being given preferential treatment? Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is skeptical about that.

“I think you all know Tiger well enough to know that he wants to earn his way into all of, into every competition,” said Monahan. “That’s his makeup. But I think as you go forward and as you evolve as an organization and you think about how do you serve and satisfy a rabid fan base, those discussions more broadly would likely be held at the Policy Board meeting.

“And I’m sure we would have that discussion. But [Woods] would be the hardest one to convince.”

Good luck finding another Tiger

Scottie Scheffler, especially if this new TaylorMade Spider Tour X turns out to be a permanent solution for his putting woes, is the closest thing golf currently has to Tiger Lite.

The defending Players champion has held the world No. 1 ranking for 78 weeks over the past two years. Scheffler’s dominant five-shot victory last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational extended his lead over Rory McIlroy to a sizable 2.617 ranking points, so he’s golf’s big cheese for now.

But a lot of players in the past decade — McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm — have had periodic streaks of dominance, only to settle slightly below that top perch or drop way beneath it.

Tiger was No. 1 for 683 weeks, a record Scheffler concedes may never be broken. To illustrate, the previous mark was Greg Norman at 331 weeks.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like that again in the game of golf,” Scheffler said.

This is why the generation coming after Tiger pines for his return, however brief it may be. They would give anything to be paired up with him — be it at the Players or golf’s most hallowed ground, Augusta National — just once before Woods exits the game for good.

“I’d love that,” said 32-year-old Canadian golfer Corey Conners, who has never played competitively with Woods and finished 46th at the 2019 Masters when he won. “Time’s ticking. Having grown up idolizing him and watching Tiger beat everyone for years, it’d be special to be paired with him one day.”

Scheffler got a taste of that for his only time in the final round at the 2020 Masters. He watched in awe as Tiger, after making a professional-high score of 10 (putting three balls in the water) at the par-3 12th hole, rebounded by making five birdies in his last six holes.

Woods’ 76 impressed Scheffler for its sheer grit, making the effort to keep grinding away and climbing 20 spots up the leaderboard to finish tied for 38th.

“I mean, it’s completely meaningless to him, like at that stage in his career, what’s the point?” said Scheffler. “And for him just to step up there and completely turn it around. And I kid you not, he hit, still to this day, three of the best iron shots I’ve ever seen hit coming into those last few holes, and it was just unbelievable to watch.

“The way he competes in this game is different than a lot of players. He puts everything he has into every shot that he hits on the golf course, which I think is a really underrated skill out here.”

Right closure at the Players

Take Woods’ most famous stroke at the Players, the 50-foot, triple-breaker, “better-than-most” putt in the 2001 third round, as described by NBC analyst Gary Koch. What is often overlooked about that putt is how long Woods took to survey the green, trying to decipher the angles and how much the ball would break at certain points.

No one knew before Woods delivered that putt for the ages — when he was already three-quarters of the way to a Tiger Slam — that making it would end up being the difference in winning his first Players by one shot over Vijay Singh.

Woods gave fans at the Stadium Course and millions watching on television a display of golf that weekend – a 66-67 finish – forever etched in our memory.

It’s probably asking too much to expect a 48-year-old Tiger to ever again duplicate that feat, even at an idyllic venue like Augusta National.

Horschel believes Woods saying No Thanks to this year’s Players is a sign that the public should lower even its current modest expectations for his appearances.

“I know he was ambitious about playing once a month, that was his goal,” said Horschel. “Personally, what he told us is he said it may not be that much. He would try, but it just depends on what his body does and allows him to do.”

It’s safe to say there won’t be another Tiger Woods. Maybe some will have great career stretches, but nobody with so much advance hype that ends up far exceeding it.

Tiger Woods fan Cole Walker from Osteen, Florida, channels his hero at the 17th during final round the 2023 Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach. (Photo: Bob Self/Florida Times-Union)

Undoubtedly, golf will produce more stars that will go on to have fabulous careers. Scheffler, 27, has positioned himself to be special. It’s anybody’s guess what will become of 2024 first-time winners Jake Knapp, Nick Dunlap and Matthieu Pavon.

But to see Woods tee it up one more time at the Players Championship, where he has never missed a cut in 18 appearances? That’d be quite the spectacle.

For a two-time champion and still the game’s biggest star, it’d be a cool way to say goodbye to the Stadium Course.

More The Players

Wyndham clark's brutal lip out at 2024 players championship cost him as much as $2.5 million, scottie scheffler takes over top spot for most money won at players championship, scottie scheffler well on his way to winning hole-out bet with caddie ted scott.

Keep up with The Players Championship live coverage and leaderboard throughout the week.

Scottie Scheffler makes PGA Tour history with 2024 Players Championship win, title defense

Opinion: PGA Tour, LIV Golf must resolve their division for the good of game, and do it quickly

Patrick Cantlay confirms meeting with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund for Monday

Most popular, who's in, who's out: check out the players currently bound for the 2024 summer olympics in paris, the list of top 18 money winners in pga tour history has plenty of surprises, best new golf irons you can buy in 2024, tiger woods officially registered for 2024 masters; past champion angel cabrera visa denied, here are the winningest south korean players in lpga history, two-time major champion so yeon ryu, 33, announces retirement, masters champions dinner menus over the last 30 years.

• CBSSports.com
• Fanatics Sportsbook
• CBS Sports Home
• NCAA Tournament
• W. Tournament
• Champions League
• Motor Sports
• High School
• Horse Racing 

Men's Brackets

Women's Brackets

Fantasy Baseball

Fantasy football, football pick'em, college pick'em, fantasy basketball, fantasy hockey, franchise games, 24/7 sports news network.

• CBS Sports Golazo Network
• March Madness Live
• PGA Tour on CBS
• UEFA Champions League
• UEFA Europa League
• Italian Serie A
• Watch CBS Sports Network
• TV Shows & Listings

The Early Edge

A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast

With the First Pick

NFL Draft is coming up!

• Podcasts Home
• Eye On College Basketball
• The First Cut Golf
• NFL Pick Six
• Cover 3 College Football
• Fantasy Football Today
• Morning Kombat
• My Teams Organize / See All Teams Help Account Settings Log Out

Tiger Woods not among 2024 Players Championship field with Masters one month away

Woods had initially suggested a possible appearance at the pga tour's flagship event.

Tiger Woods' was not among those on the commitment list for next week's 2024 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which the PGA Tour released on Friday. The 15-time major champion was last seen withdrawing from the second round of the Genesis Invitational in February due to illness as he battled to make the cut at the event he hosts annually. Woods confirmed his withdrawal from the Genesis Invitational was not because of any physical injury but rather catching a bug which went through the locker room that week at Riviera Country Club.

"I would like to confirm that I had to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational due to illness, which we now know is influenza," Woods posted on social media . "I am resting and feeling better. Good luck to the players this weekend. I'm disappointed to not be there and want to thank Genesis and all the fans for the support."

In his only complete competitive round of the year, Woods carded a 1-over 72 at Riviera. He flashed signs of vintage Tiger with five birdies across the par 3s and par 5s but struggled with consistency throughout the day. Playing the par 4s in a 6-over fashion, Woods ultimately came in over par thanks in part to a shanked approach shot into the 18th green.

Woods ramped up his winter schedule with appearances at the Hero World Challenge and the PNC Championship, giving everyone a new wave of optimism about his health. He cited the possibility of a 2024 calendar that would feature one tournament a month, but this was thrown into doubt in Los Angeles as the early exit marked his third withdrawal in his last six PGA Tour starts dating back to the 2022 Masters.

Without the addition of the Players Championship to his schedule, Woods may arrive next month at Augusta National for the 2024 Masters with only one round under his belt. The five-time champion will have an opportunity to make more history at the Masters as he searches for a record 24th consecutive made cut in the year's first major championship. In 2023, Woods tied Gary Players and Fred Couples at 23 before being forced to withdraw due to an ankle injury.

Our Latest Golf Stories

How to watch 2024 Valspar Championship

Patrick mcdonald • 1 min read.

Streelman leads after Round 1 at Valspar Championship

Patrick mcdonald • 4 min read.

2024 Masters odds, computer picks, bets, field

Cbs sports staff • 4 min read.

2024 Masters best bets, props, expert picks

Cbs sports staff • 3 min read, 2024 valspar championship picks, predictions, odds.

Rahm ready to challenge Scheffler at 2024 Masters

Patrick mcdonald • 3 min read.

Tiger Woods will not compete at Players Championship

Kevin Streelman leads at Valspar after Round 1

Is Scheffler the best since Tiger?

Scheffler proves better than we realized

Rahm ready to fend off Scheffler at 2024 Masters

PGA Tour leaders meet with Saudi PIF boss in Bahamas

Purse and payouts for 2024 Players Championship

J.T., Spieth among notables to miss cut at The Players

Golfer makes hole-in-one on 17th after eagle on 16th

Davis Love III enthused about golf's young stars

Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf (PlayStation)

The PS1 version of Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf is your typical golf simulator... that's what they want you to think, anyway.

Hidden South Park Episode

Present on the first 100,000 copies of the disc is the file ZZDUMMY.DAT , which is a QuickTime movie containing the uncensored version of the 1995 animated short film The Spirit of Christmas (also known as Jesus vs. Santa ), which later became a pilot episode of sorts for the TV series South Park . The episode was apparently sneaked onto the disc by someone at EA, and according to the metadata, it was converted four days before being added to the disc.

EA recalled these copies of the game a few months after it was released, calling the episode "objectionable to consumers". The PC version does not contain this file.

This incident would cause EA to be more cautious about unused content being left behind in their games according to this comment from Simon Mills, the lead programmer of James Bond 007: NightFire .

• Pages missing developer references
• Games developed by Adrenalin Interactive
• Pages missing publisher references
• Games published by EA Sports
• Games published by EA Square
• PlayStation games
• Pages missing date references
• Games released in 1998
• Games released in October
• Games released on October 31
• Games with revisional differences
• Games with unusual dummy files
• PGA Tour series
• Tiger Woods series

Navigation menu

Personal tools.

• Create account
• View source
• View history
• Recent changes
• Random page
• Rules & Editing Help
• Related Links
• Message Board
• Chat (Web client)
• @CuttingRoomWiki
• By platform
• By release date
• By developer
• By publisher
• Featured articles
• What links here
• Related changes
• Special pages
• Printable version
• Permanent link
• Page information
• This page was last edited on 17 March 2024, at 05:39.
• Content is available under Attribution 3.0 Unported unless otherwise noted.
• Privacy policy
• About The Cutting Room Floor
• Disclaimers

Follow Playing Through online:

• Follow Playing Through on Twitter
• Follow Playing Through on Instagram
• Follow Playing Through on Facebook

Site search

• Champions Tour
• DP World Tour
• Latest News

Filed under:

Tiger Woods’ Masters news to bring excitement, sigh of relief to golf fans

The Masters updated its website to feature the 2024 field and gave fans a massive gift that included Tiger Woods.

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Tiger Woods’ Masters news to bring excitement, sigh of relief to golf fans

There are three weeks until the 2024 Masters Championship begins at Augusta National on Thursday, April 11. Things are starting to come together for the first major championship of the year.

The Augusta National team updated their website Wednesday to include new information which included the field of players who will be participating.

Tiger Woods was one of the names on the list, giving fans even more to be excited about. He hasn’t indicated when his next event would be, but many assumed it would have to be Augusta.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Playing Through (@_playingthrough)

This year will mark his 26th appearance at The Masters. He has won five green jackets during his illustrious career, with the latest coming in 2019.

When Woods teed it up in December at the Hero World Challenge, he announced his goal of playing once a month through majors season. However, his withdrawal from The Genesis Invitational prompted concern that would be possible.

Thankfully, he removed himself from the tournament due to an illness.

Fans hoped he would compete at The Players last week, but that did not come to fruition.

There are still two events the 15-time major winner could play in before Augusta National. The Houston Open and the Valero Texas Open are the two weeks ahead of The Masters. However, it seems unlikely that he would play in the Lone Star State and quickly turn around to play in Georgia.

Woods’ successful surgery last year made him more optimistic about playing.

Fans are still excited about him playing. As Patrick Cantlay put it, Tiger Woods is the needle .

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Next Up In Golf

• Angel Cabrera 2024 Masters return thwarted after VISA application denied
• Justin Thomas details post Tiger Woods era at Valspar Championship
• Jon Rahm “fully aware” of Scottie Scheffler's dominance ahead of The Masters
• Tiger Woods “very engaged” with LIV Golf boss at PGA Tour player director meeting
• Padraig Harrington’s jaw-dropping claim will fire up the golf “weekend warrior”
• PGA Tour “far away” from unification with LIV Golf after player director meeting

Loading comments...

Sign up for the newsletter sign up for the playing through daily roundup newsletter, thanks for signing up.

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

Tiger Woods, PGA Tour directors and LIV Golf backer expected to meet on Monday: What we know

PGA Tour directors, including Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth, are set to meet Monday with LIV Golf's backers.

Michael Corvo

PGA Tour player directors — Tiger Woods , Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson — have reportedly been “strongly encouraged” to meet with representatives of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which backs the LIV Golf League, including PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

Rory McIlroy and Cantlay confirmed the meeting at the Players Championship on Sunday. The meeting will reportedly be held at a private residence near PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

“Fundamentally, he wants to do the right thing,” McIlroy said of Al-Ruamayyan, before taking a shot at his nemesis, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. “I have spent time with Yasir and his — the people that have represented him in LIV, I think, have done him a disservice, Norman and those guys.

“I actually think there’s a really big disconnect between PIF and LIV. I think you got PIF over here and LIV are sort of over here doing their own thing. So the closer that we can get to Yasir, PIF and hopefully finalize that investment, I think that will be a really good thing.”

“They want to park money for decades and not worry about it. They want to invest in smart and secure businesses, and the PGA Tour is definitely one of those, especially if they're looking to invest in sport in some way.”

It's now known precisely how PIF, the PGA Tour, or its new investor , Strategic Sports Group (SSG), will be represented. Cantlay was purposefully vague about the nature of the meeting, indicating that his side would listen more than negotiate.

“Well, I’ve gotta hear out what they have to say, and I will always do my best to represent the entire membership whenever I am in a meeting in that capacity,” Patrick Cantlay said Sunday at the Players Championship. “I think more information is always better.”

“I’m not sure that I can say much more other than we’re being encouraged to potentially meet with them, but at the same time we probably feel like our membership should know timing and what could happen and just, in general, maybe it’s just a meet,” Spieth said Friday at TPC Sawgrass. “We are being encouraged, obviously, which I think is probably a good thing that the entire board should if there’s going to be any potential for a negotiation.”

Before the Players, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that negotiations with PIF were “accelerating” but a completed agreement was a ways off. The PGA Tour has seen fan enthusiasm dip in 2024 as stars have flocked to LIV or failed to produce compelling results. McIlroy — who resigned from the policy board in 2023 — recently called for expedited negotiations.

Steve Silverman · 8 hours ago

Michael Corvo · 1 day ago

“I think [it] should have happened months ago, so I am glad that it’s happening,” McIlroy said about more talks. “Hopefully that progresses conversations and gets us closer to a solution.”

Right on time, the 50th edition of the Players Championship delivered the PGA Tour one of its most exhilarating spectacles in years. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler battled through a neck injury to shoot a final-round 64, becoming the first repeat winner in the history of the hallowed event, and the first back-to-back winner on the PGA Tour in 2024. Scheffler finished one stroke ahead of Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, and Xander Schauffele — all top players who produced high-level golf.

Meanwhile, LIV Golf has started its third season relatively quietly (depending on your Anthony Kim mileage) though it hopes an event in Miami the week before the Masters (Apr. 11-14) will gin up stateside interest. At the moment, Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann look like the second- and third-best players in golf — setting up a potentially tantalizing showdown at Augusta National.

About the Author

Tiger Woods included in 2024 Masters official tournament field list

Five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods is included in the official tournament field list , an indication that he could play next month at Augusta National.

Woods, 48, whose appearances in PGA Tour events have been limited since his 2021 car accident , has played 25 times in the Masters and won in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019.

During last year's tournament, he made the cut for a 23rd consecutive time, tying the record shared by Gary Player and Fred Couples. But he was in pain in the third round and announced before the round resumed on Sunday that he was withdrawing . He had surgery on his right ankle 10 days later to address post-traumatic arthritis.

Woods' lone PGA Tour appearance this season was at the Genesis Invitational, and he pulled out of that tournament because of illness.

This year's Masters is scheduled to run from April 11-14.

Woods' five green jackets at the Masters are one shy of the record held by Jack Nicklaus. Woods trails only Nicklaus in overall major victories, 18-15, and is the co-leader with Sam Snead with 82 PGA Tour victories.

Dunn: Newport Beach ready to host Hoag Classic

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Orange County
• Things to Do

Uncategorized

The days appear to be over for the no-name, million-to-one-shot golfer qualifying for the PGA Tour Champions after hitting the golden age of 50.

There’s no Robert Landers, Tom Wargo or Mark Johnson, pied pipers of the past, in this year’s rookie class on the PGA Tour Champions, formerly the Senior PGA Tour, as Newport Beach Country Club prepares to host the Hoag Classic Friday through Sunday, the only PGA event in Orange County.

The five newcomers on tour have all teed it up on the PGA Tour at one time or another, unlike a few folk heroes of yesteryear who never played on the tour and cracked the senior circuit after decades of grinding and making it through Qualifying School, or Q School.

Hoag Classic officials will hope for the next two years that Tiger Woods, who will turn 50 on Dec. 30, 2025, and become eligible for the PGA Tour Champions, will decide to play at Newport Beach in 2026. Meanwhile, the tour’s newcomer class will experience a bear market for the next two years.

This weekend, fans will cheer for players such as defending champion Ernie Els and crowd favorite Fred Couples, headliners of the Hoag Classic, one of the longest running and considered among the most philanthropic on the PGA Tour Champions.

Landers played in the inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic at Mesa Verde Country Club (the event rebranded to the Hoag Classic in 2019). A self-taught golfer, Landers never played on the PGA Tour. He was a cattle farmer from Texas who had practiced in his cow pie-filled pasture to earn a spot on the tour at Q School.

Landers played his first 18 holes at age 22 and shot a 96. Before farming and raising dairy cattle for five years, Landers worked as a sales manager for a department store, while also selling woodcrafts he created with his wife, Freddie. His side interests were woodworking and collecting guns.

At the Toshiba Classic, Landers sported tennis shoes and a used mix-matched set of homemade golf clubs to finish tied for 68th and earn $1,275.

Wargo never played on the PGA Tour, either. He grew up on a Michigan dairy farm and didn’t play golf until he taught himself at age 25. He eventually became part owner of the Greenview Golf Club in Centralia, Ill., and before golf his jobs included iron worker, bartender and assembly-line auto worker.

He earned a spot on the senior tour in 1993 and made more than $1 million the following year. A surprise success and unheard-of golfer on the senior tour, there were no fancy hotels for Wargo, who would travel the country with his wife in an RV to every tour stop.

Like breakthrough players before him who became surprise millionaires or noteworthy 50-plus golfers, “Beer Man” Johnson won the 2005 Toshiba Classic.

The unheralded Johnson, a beer truck driver for 18 years before turning pro, heard the catchphrase “Beer Man” reverberating throughout the weekend at Newport Beach, then stunned the field and pulled off the year’s biggest upset, electrifying the gallery on the last hole by making an eagle to win by four strokes.

Using a lob wedge, Johnson ended in grand fashion on the par-5 18th hole, carding a three as the greenside gallery cheered loudly, followed by an everlasting chorus of “Beer Man” chants.  Johnson’s winning Toshiba check of $247,500 was more than he’d earned in six years on the Golden State, Canadian and Nationwide tours combined.

On the golf course, the Hoag Classic is played on one of the most scenic courses on tour and viewed by many as an ideal seniors’ golf course. The tree-lined, 6,600-yard, par-71 private course is one of the shortest on tour, but challenging enough with its subtle breaks to cause havoc.

Newport Beach Superintendent Scott Dey said last week the course is in great shape and added that his team of agronomists has been growing as they are “continuing to fine tune playability and conditioning. We are looking forward to presenting the course to the tour as we aim to do every day for our great members. Fingers are crossed on weather.”

Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.

• Newsroom Guidelines
• Report an Error

More in Uncategorized

Anaheim Hills briefs: Libraries have more fun planned this month

Daxon: Is a teacher strike in Brea’s future?

Housing | US home sales hit strongest pace in a year

Local News | Mission San Juan Capistrano welcomes the Return of the Swallows

‘Rookie’ Host Seri Park Makes a Heartwarming Tiger Woods Confession as She Aims to Reimagine LPGA’s Future

S eri Pak and Tiger Woods started their careers around the same time. The former was in 1998, two years after Woods debuted on the PGA Tour. Fittingly, Pak, a 25-time winner on the LPGA Tour, now has a tournament she’d host around the same area where Tiger Woods hosts the Genesis Invitational. The Dio Implant LA Open has been renamed the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship.

The South Korean legend admits her English has gone soft because of a lack of usage. It’s been eight years since retirement, and Pak has comforted herself into the post-retirement life. She now manages her foundation and sponsors a few events, a path also taken by Annika Sorenstam . But more than her Swedish counterpart, it’s Tiger Woods who comes up in conversations solely because of the dramatic impact Park had on the game .

Seri Park wants to do ‘better’ than Tiger Woods

Like the 15-time Major Champion, Seri Park had an undeniable influence on golf—both in her country and globally. And now they have a tournament under their name in Los Angeles. What does she think of the comparison, though? “ I’m going to be better than Tiger in the future, I say. I say that, ” Park said with hearty laughter.

Since Park won the US Open in their rookie year, the number of South Korean female golfers has gone up from 350,000 to 1.3 million, Beth Ann Nichols of Golfweek reported. The LPGA Tour now stops at seven Asian venues, up from only one in 1998. Moreover, South Korean players have over 200 titles, of which Seri Pak has 25.

However, the five-time Major winner is as humble as ever. “ It’s not as high as what Tiger does because Tiger is such a great player, but at the same time, it’s women’s side, and especially I’m Asian. I’m trying to do my best way that career, and in the future, I’m trying to get most better person to make this huge happening more. I’m trying to work hard. ” In 2016, the Hall of Famer’s last year on the Tour, ten of the top 20 players were of Korean descent. 18 years prior, Park was the only South Korean on the LPGA Tour.

Tiger Woods has played in his event before but was not so lucky this time, walking off mid-round on Friday because of influenza. For Park, this is the first time teeing off at her own event. How is she feeling?

Keep your expectations in check

How her game will be is anyone’s guess, including the LPGA veteran herself. But what Park does know is that she is nervous. Park told the media that, “ I used to be a pro, but this is my first time as not a player. It’s going to be fun, but at the same time, I wasn’t playing golf much at all. ”

Either it’s going “ to be okay or it’s going to be really worse ,” Park adds. Her game won’t matter, of course. What matters is her stepping on the greens. Ruoning Yin , last year’s PGA Championship winner, said, “ Se-ri is such a legend. It’s just amazing to be part of the field. I would love to meet such a legend. That would be my dream. ” That’s the impact Seri Park had through her 18-year playing career.

Read More: 2024 Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship: How to Buy Tickets for the LPGA Event?

The post ‘Rookie’ Host Seri Park Makes a Heartwarming Tiger Woods Confession as She Aims to Reimagine LPGA’s Future appeared first on EssentiallySports .

Tiger Woods walking pain-free again means there’s room for optimism in 2024

Change Text Size

Nobody has the ability to stoke a good December fire better than Tiger Woods can. In recent times, December has become the month when Tiger ends a traditionally quiet, injury-ridden, health-hindered season by suddenly popping up like Punxsutawney Phil to exhibit his other-worldly skills on a golf course. In the tiniest of sample sizes, mind you.

Always, Woods leaves golf fans longing for more. Frequently, we are left with many more questions than concrete answers, with murky-at-best guesses as we connect small snippets, polish off crystal balls and predict what might be in store for Woods in the season ahead.

Tiger turns 48 later this month, so we’ll add the obligatory disclaimer that objects in the mirror may seem, well, closer than they appear. Until this month, Woods had played six official rounds in 2023 – four at The Genesis Invitational (T45) and two in April at the Masters, where he made the cut but withdrew without finishing his third round. Then he stepped back behind the curtain.

This time, as Woods points to 2024 and golf fans look forward to him potentially playing a little more than has been the norm – maybe six or eight times, if things go to plan – there seems to be a little extra room for optimism.

“Absolutely,” said Rob McNamara, vice president at TGR Ventures and Woods’ friend and trusted confidante. He probably sees more of Woods, on and off a golf course, than anybody.

“The fact that the ankle has held up this well is a positive thing,” McNamara said Sunday, walking the back nine with Tiger and Charlie Woods at PNC. “The fact that he can walk ... he went through a lot the last couple of years just to play in those few majors. This has been just a much more comfortable experience. It was tough to watch him even try to get through some of those rounds (when his ankle and leg were in pain), and now you can see that he’s comfortable, which is great.”

Tiger Woods’ interview after Round 2 of the PNC Championship

McNamara was like the rest of us watching Woods try to compete after his horrific 2021 crash on an early Monday morning in Los Angeles, when Woods tore through a curve and his vehicle tumbled down a steep embankment. Woods' right leg was damaged so severely that Woods wondered if he might lose it.

So we collectively cringed with fear and concern the last two seasons each time Woods drew a perilous sidehill lie, or climbed down into a deep bunker. It was painful to watch. Last week at PNC, Woods moved so much more freely. He did not display pain after big swings. Sunday got tricky at times, walking across slippery, soggy turf after a deluge of rain rolled through Orlando. But at the end of things, Woods looked no worse for wear. He appeared to be a content man, and at times wore a wide grin across his face.

His PNC Championship in Orlando had been more of a family gathering than a golf tournament, and that’s fine. For a fourth year, Woods, an 82-time winner on the PGA TOUR, played alongside his son, Charlie, now 14 and getting bigger, better and longer. This time, Tiger’s 16-year-old daughter, Sam, was able to join the fun, carrying her dad's bag for the very first time. So yes, the PNC is a bit of hit-and-giggle, played using a scramble format, with ball in hand. There is never a bad lie to be had.

It also was windy, especially on Sunday, when gusts exceeded 35 mph, and Woods had to summon old skills and sound thinking to pull off shots. In that regard, it was a quality test. His touch from 100 yards in was better, much sharper than he had been in the Bahamas. He dialed down some irons, like the low laser that bore through the wind to the back of the green at the par-3 17th on Sunday, or the approach that never left the flagstick on the previous hole.

And then there were times when the wind was just right when he sent towering iron shots sailing into the heavens, taking your breath away as only he seems to do.

“I was able to hit a lot of little nifty little shots, like 10 (where he clipped a nice sand wedge that pulled up a few feet from the hole), or some of the shots I hit pin-high just because we had ball-in-hand,” Woods said. “But the fact that I was able to hit the shots both ways, which was nice.”

Tiger and Charlie Woods make fourth-straight birdie at PNC Championship

Woods walking miles across a golf course without pain offers an altered vision for his immediate future. Tiger said his recovery went smoothly after walking 81 holes at the Hero World Challenge (a nine-hole pro-am, followed by four tournament days). On Monday after the tournament, he was already back in the gym.

Likewise, despite a cart being available to him, Woods walked 18-hole rounds at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Friday and Sunday (carts were mandatory on Saturday to beat impending storms). He passed on a cart for his Friday pro-am and also chose to walk on Sunday, as he and Charlie shot 61 and tied for fifth. He always has been able to hit the shots. His biggest impediment has been traveling down a fairway to get to it.

“At this point, it’s just about being able to get enough reps and playing more,” said Justin Thomas, his South Florida neighbor, who played alongside Woods at Hero and PNC. “You never know. I think every day is different for him. I think he would agree with that.

“But he still hits the shots that only he can hit. It’s something to where, if he can get enough practice to have his game in good golfing and tournament shape, I think it’s great. But you just never know what is going to happen.”

Another December is dwindling away, another birthday looms as Woods creeps toward 50, and we are left wondering what we’ll see from Tiger in the year ahead. As Woods himself reminded us on Sunday, he has not forgotten how to hit a golf ball. Dare we be bold enough: If all the stars align, can he win again? Is that even possible? Or is it simply naive, over-the-top wishfulness?

“I know if I can practice, I know I can still do it,” Woods said. “I can still hit the golf ball. I can still chip. I can still putt. Granted, it's also putting it all together for 72 holes. That's the challenging part of it.”

That, of course, and walking. Over two weeks in December, for Woods, that underrated element of his game appeared to be vastly improved.

Is there renewed hope for Tiger, now sitting at No. 901 in the World Ranking? Like Punxsutawney Phil, few can cast as big a shadow as he. In this season of great guesswork, if nothing else, ponder this as holiday eggnog chills in your glass. All of a sudden, 2024 has become awfully intriguing, has it not?