Tiger Woods turns 50 on Tuesday, a milestone that feels surreal for the player who redefined golf’s limits. It’s a transition point that brings him to a crossroads—now eligible for PGA Tour Champions events while still navigating the physical challenges that have limited his competitive appearances.
Talk to any golfer who competed against Tiger and they’ll share at least one shot so sublime they knew it was beyond their capabilities.
He was just different. Better.
Stewart Cink once watched Tiger hit a 2-iron into the par-5 10th at TPC Sugarloaf that left him shaking his head: “This is a skill set I don’t have.” Padraig Harrington saw Woods strike an 8-iron at Firestone so perfectly it rattled him into a triple bogey. Nick Price played alongside Tiger for the opening rounds at St. Andrews in 2000 and felt the tournament was already decided. Mark O’Meara, after a practice round at Pebble Beach before the 2000 U.S. Open, told his wife, “Tiger is going to win. And not only is he going to win, he’s going to blow away the field.” Woods won by 15.
For all those years, so many greats couldn’t relate to Woods. Now, finally, they can.
Not even Tiger can beat time.
It’s different in golf, though. This sport allows competitors to remain relevant well past typical athletic prime years. Phil Mickelson won a major at 50. Jack Nicklaus made a Sunday charge at the Masters at 58.
With Tiger, it’s complicated.
This is the first year he hasn’t played a single tournament, sidelined by a ruptured Achilles in March and a seventh back surgery in September.
“I’m probably going to play 25 events on both tours and I think that should cover most of the year, right?” Woods joked in the Bahamas when asked about turning 50.
His resilience has been remarkable. He won the U.S. Open just eight days before reconstructive knee surgery. He captured the Masters two years after spinal fusion. But he hasn’t been the same since that 2021 car crash in Los Angeles. Tiger has played just 11 times in the last five seasons, finished only four tournaments, and hasn’t been closer than 16 shots to any winner.
“Come back to what point?” Woods said. “I’d like to come back to just playing golf again.”
This milestone is more about looking back than forward.
Ernie Els proved prophetic back in 2000 at Kapalua after losing to Tiger in a playoff. “I think he’s a legend in the making,” Els said that day. “He’s 24. He’s probably going to be bigger than Elvis when he gets into his 40s.”
That’s debatable, but Tiger’s impact on golf isn’t.
He transformed everything—popularity soared, purses exploded. He made golf look different and made it cool. Perhaps his greatest legacy is how he unwittingly trained a generation who wanted to be like him. Scottie Scheffler says nothing inspired him more than watching Tiger’s intensity when out of contention at the 2020 Masters. Woods made a 10 on the 12th hole then responded with five birdies over his last six holes. He tied for 38th.
“Tiger was just different in the way he approached each shot. It was like the last shot he was ever going to hit,” Scheffler said. It was the only time they played together. Scheffler is now approaching three years at world No. 1, the longest stretch since Woods.
But it all started with that skill set unlike any other.
“He’s the only guy I’ve ever known who continually exceeded expectations,” Tom Lehman said. “No matter how much you heaped on him, he found a way to exceed them.”
Lehman remembers a moment at the Memorial on the 17th hole, where the green was rock-hard. Lehman hit 5-iron as high as he could and was pleased when it rolled out to 25 feet.
“He hits this shot way up in the air and it was coming down like a parachute,” Lehman said. “Lands by the cup and bounces 2 feet and stops. I figure he must have hit a 7-iron. I said, ‘Tiger, what club was that?’ He said, ‘That was a little, three-finger 5-iron.’ He just filleted it in there.
“When I think of him, that’s what I think of. Only one guy could hit that shot. And he did it often.”
Woods completed the career Grand Slam at 24, the youngest ever. He had 50 wins worldwide and 10 majors before turning 30.
It wasn’t as easy as he made it look. The late Dan Jenkins once said when Tiger was at his peak, “Only two things can stop Tiger—injury or a bad marriage.” Turns out it was both. His path derailed in late 2009 with revelations of multiple affairs, and injuries kept piling up. Still, he climbed back to world No. 1 in 2013 and ran his PGA Tour victory count to 82, tied with Sam Snead.
“If he never got injured, he’d have 25 majors and 125 wins,” Fred Couples said.
Matt Kuchar sees it differently. He believes the injuries actually enhanced Tiger’s legend, particularly that 2008 U.S. Open win at Torrey Pines.
Woods played that week on shredded knee ligaments and two stress fractures in his left leg. What’s often forgotten is that he hadn’t walked 18 holes since the Masters until the opening round at Torrey.
“The legacy is bigger because of the injuries,” Kuchar said. “What he did at Torrey Pines, what he did at the (2019) Masters is sort of Hoganesque. At some point I, like most everybody, counted him out. And then he wins again.”
Woods keeps busy off the course. He was appointed to the PGA Tour policy board without term limits in 2023 during the tour’s battle with Saudi-funded LIV Golf. He now leads the Future Competition Committee reshaping the tour model.
The question now is when—and where—he plays next. Woods is the only player to have won the U.S. Junior Amateur, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open. The U.S. Senior Open is at Scioto, the Ohio course where Jack Nicklaus learned to play.
April at Augusta isn’t the same without Tiger. He set a Masters record in 2024 by making the cut for the 24th consecutive time. How much more? How much longer?
“People want to see him,” Kuchar said. “And if he shoots 76, people still want to see him. He’s unique in our sport.”
