Jim Nantz and Tiger Woods on Sunday at Torrey Pines.
CBS
Tiger Woods cracked a smile. After about a minute or so in his first public appearance since his mother’s death, on national TV, he’d been asked about car rides, after all.
Yes, he’d talk about this. Before Tiger Woods was Tiger Woods, he was Tiger Woods, junior golfer in a passenger seat, and Tida Woods was at the wheel. Dad, he said, worked. So mom taxied him up and down So Cal.
At this point, he lit up a bit.
Tida was also a statistician. Meticulous, too.
“She would drive out there,” Woods said, “and keep score, walk every hole and how many putts I hit, how many fairways I hit, how many greens I hit.”
“She tracked it all,” Woods said. “Gosh, all those days led us to the point where — and she was — oh, man, she was hard on me about school, about getting good grades and doing well in school. To be honest with you, if I didn’t get any homework done, I wasn’t allowed to go play. Not with my friends, just go play in general. It was important that I got good grades, and school came first before any sport I was playing.
“She meant everything to me. Losing her has been a very hard and difficult process to go through.”
Ahead of the visit in the CBS booth that overlooked the 18th green at Torrey Pines, you’d maybe wondered how this would go. Tida Woods died 12 days ago, he announced over his social media channels, and after originally committing to play in this week’s Genesis Invitational, the tournament he hosts, he soon withdrew, before reappearing Sunday. What would we hear, then, during his TV time? What would we see? How long would he talk?
About a half-hour. And a story about numbers, from a man who works in yards, started things. Like mother, like son.
“Yeah, it’s been a tough process to go through,” Woods said, “but I’ve had amazing family support. All the players have reached out that were playing here this week. The amount of texts and the emails and nice messages of support I got has really helped and has really meant a lot to me.”
“Mom was my rock.”
Tiger Woods reflects on the passing of his mother, Kutilda Woods.
Below are other items from his time on the broadcast.
The pro Tiger Woods’ dad told young Tiger to watch
Woods said his first visit to a PGA Tour tournament came at Torrey, for the “Andy Williams” (Williams was once the host of the now-named Farmers Insurance Open) — and it led to a question of whom he followed. His answer?
“There’s one guy that my dad said you’ve got to watch him hit a golf ball,” Woods said. “It was a 1-iron, it was on the last hole, it was Andy Bean. This was the first time I ever came to a Tour event and then the second event I ever went to was at Riv.”
A deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia PIF? ‘We’re in a very positive place’
Woods said “we’re in a very positive place” in talking about the negotiations on a funding deal between the Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. The PIF also funds LIV Golf, and a potential agreement could bring together players on both tours.
Earlier in the week, following a meeting with President Donald Trump, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that negotiations on the deal were progressing.
“I think we’re in a very positive place right now,” Woods said. “We had a meeting with the president. Unfortunately, I had some other circumstances that came up, but Jay and Adam [Scott, a fellow pro], they did great during the meeting, and we have another subsequent meeting coming up.
“I think that things are going to heal quickly. We’re going to get this game going in the right direction. It’s been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years ,and the fans want all of us to play together, all the top players playing together, and we’re going to make that happen.”
Said Nantz: “I know there’s so many things that have to be figured out, but it could be this year or it could be very soon this year, sounds like.”
Said Woods: “Yes. Yes and yes.”
Scottie Scheffler game? ‘Mundane’
While watching Scottie Scheffler, the pro who put together a Woodsian year in 2024, Woods offered this:
“Yeah, Scottie, the way he plays, it’s very mundane. He’s got a lot of footwork, but he knows how to score.”
Ludvig Aberg’s game? ‘Not a whole lot can go wrong’
While watching Ludvig Aberg, the eventual winner of the Genesis, Woods offered this:
“Yeah, Ludvig’s swing really not a whole lot can go wrong with it. Occasionally he might speed up a little bit and kind of get stuck under it, but other than that, I mean, he hits this tight little draw. Beautiful game. And on top of that, super nice guy.”
His own game?
After being asked by Nantz about his own goals for this year, Woods offered this:
“My goal is to play more and I haven’t played. I got to work on that. This process was unexpected. I’ll get back after it and look forward to playing some big events.”
The other sites that were considered for the Genesis? A few
The Genesis, typically played at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, was moved to Torrey in San Diego due to L.A.’s wildfires. Woods said other sites were considered.
“It was looking like we could go back up to Monterey or we could go to Las Vegas or we could go to Phoenix or Palm Springs or we could come here,” Woods said. “I wanted to keep the event at an iconic venue. Riviera’s iconic. It was iconic to me when I first played there, it was the first tournament on the PGA Tour I ever played.
“And I think this golf course is iconic.”
Tiger Woods, TV analyst?
His time in the broadcast booth ended with an exchange among Nantz, Woods and analyst Trevor Immelman.
Said Nantz of Woods: “I’ll tell you what, he’s a pretty good analyst, too.”
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
