Tiger Woods says surgically repaired ankle is pain-free, but there’s a caveat

Tiger Woods’ right ankle, which he seriously injured in a 2021 car accident before healing in April, no longer hinders him.

“My ankle is fine,” Woods told Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press. “Where they stiffened my ankle, I have no problems at all. This pain has completely disappeared. It’s the other areas that have been compensated.”

Woods spoke to the AP shortly before announcing the name and ownership of his team in his new TGL mixed reality golf league, which debuts in January.

However, Woods said that he is not completely pain-free in his right leg and compared his condition to when he underwent his spinal fusion surgery in April 2017.

“All around, I had all my problems and I still have them,” he said. “So when you fix one, others have to become more hypermobile to get around it, and that can cause some problems.”

Woods did not comment on when or if he plans to return to competitive golf. The 15-time major winner, who turns 48 next month, was at the World Wide Technology Championship last week, the first PGA Tour event held in one of his designs, El Cardonal at Diamante.

It was the closest he has come to competitive golf since he withdrew from the 2023 Masters in the middle of a dismal third round after making it for the second straight year. Woods has played five PGA Tour events since a devastating single-car accident nearly cost him his right leg in February 2021.

A few days after his withdrawal from Augusta, he underwent a subtalar fusion to relieve pain from an arthritic condition that had occurred following his previous surgeries.

That kept Woods out of the public eye for most of the spring and summer, until videos of him firing shots resurfaced this fall. Woods did not speak to any media during his appearance at El Cardonal last week, but Stewart Cink told the Golf Channel the two had spoken and Woods was in “go mode.”

Woods didn’t stay in Cabo long as he was caddying for his son Charlie at the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship over the weekend. Woods walked and carried the bag all 18 holes three days in a row. Videos of him walking off the tee went viral.

“After four days of caddying, I’m in a lot of pain,” Woods said. “It was a flat route, thank God.”

Woods still has the opportunity to compete in his own tournament, the Hero World Challenge, later this month. He announced 19 of the 20 participants for the elite field in the Bahamas, but left the final position open to a TBA Tournament Exemption. Woods did the same thing last year before joining the field, only to withdraw on Monday of tournament week because of plantar fasciitis.

At the end of 2022, Woods played with Charlie in the PNC Championship for the third consecutive year. That event takes place two weeks after Hero this year, and Woods has an advantage he doesn’t have anywhere else on the PGA Tour: the use of a cart.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Publisher

Jack Hirsh is an editorial assistant at GOLF. Jack is a Pennsylvania native and a 2020 graduate of Penn State University with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program as head coach. Jack is also still *trying* to stay competitive in the local amateurs. Prior to joining GOLF, Jack worked for two years at a television station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a multimedia journalist/reporter, but also as a producer, anchor and even weather reporter. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.