Did Jack Nicklaus let slip out that Tiger Woods is going to play Champions tour?
Tiger Woods with son Charlie last December at the PNC Championship, where he played with a cart.
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Tiger Woods, PGA Tour Champions golfer?
Maybe, if you believe the only player he trails on the all-time majors win list. On an appearance this week on Nick Faldo’s new podcast, Sir Nick’s Round Table Chats, Jack Nicklaus revealed that Woods has told him he plans to play the 50-and-over golf circuit.
The news came out almost nonchalantly.
“Obviously, poor Tiger, unfortunately. I commented after the dreadful accident, when people were saying, oh, he’s going to do this and do that, I said he’s got to be able to walk again,” Faldo said on the podcast. “Poor fella. And it doesn’t sound good right now.”
“I don’t think he’s ever really going to play — he’s going to play the majors,” said Nicklaus, an 18-time major winner. “And he actually can still hit the ball pretty well.”
“Oh, he hits it solid, but he can’t walk,” Faldo said.
“But he can’t walk. He can’t walk,” Nicklaus said. “And I told him, Tiger, you’re eligible to take a cart. He says, I’m not going to do that. He says, when I get to the senior tour, I will.”
“Oh. He’s actually thinking he would come back out at 50?” Faldo asked.
“He wants to play the senior tour,” Nicklaus said.
“Wow. How about that?” Faldo said.
“Well, he’s a competitor,” Nicklaus said.
“That’s probably a secret,” Faldo said.
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Perhaps. Of course, we probably won’t know the 47-year-old’s sincere intentions to play the Champions for maybe another three years; he’s often been tight-lipped about even his PGA Tour schedule. Still, late last year, the 15-time major winner also raised the possibility of playing Champions events.
“I’m a great cart golfer,” Woods said on Another Golf Podcast podcast. “Not good at the walking part. So, I guess it’s what, three and a half years, I get to ride the buggy like all those guys out there.”
Players, of course, can use carts on the Champions tour, and can’t on the PGA Tour. Notably, Woods has also said he would not apply to use one on the younger circuit, despite a series of injuries he has suffered to his left leg, ankle and foot after a car crash just over two years ago, and that he would play a limited schedule going forward.
At the Hero World Challenge in December, Woods was most recently asked about using a cart at Tour events.
“On the PGA Tour, no,” he said. “On the sanctioned events where it’s allowed, yes, which is the Champions Tour, PNC, things of that nature. …
“I think golf [sic] is an integral part of the game at our level, and I will never take a golf cart until it’s sanctioned. It’s sanctioned on the Champions Tour, and the PNC is part of that. As far as a regular event, no, I would never do that.”
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But he may starting after Dec. 30, 2025.
He turns 50 that day.
“He’s a competitor,” Nicklaus said on Faldo’s podcast. “He loves competition.”
“Well, that’s what’s so impressive about — we talked about winning titles,” Faldo said. “I mean, to keep churning out winning and keep going — obviously he’s chasing your record, chasing Sam Snead’s record, but to be able to come out, with all that’s going on, considering he’s been in this era, to just keep wanting to win, couldn’t care less about prize money.
“Just wanting to win.”
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