What will Tiger Woods Do? PGA Tours peers weigh in on whether Woods will play on Champions Tour

Woods will turn 50 years old on Dec. 30 and can play the PGA Tour Champions when it launches in January of 2026

Charlie Woods aces No. 3 at TPC Sawgrass Stadium during Junior Players

Charlie Woods, the son of Tiger Woods, made his second hole-in-one at a high-profile tournament on Aug. 31 during the Junior Players.

Provided by Daniel Montero

• Tiger Woods will be eligible for the PGA Tour Champions when he turns 50 on December 30, 2025.
• Fellow golfers are hopeful but uncertain if Woods will join the senior tour, citing his private nature and health concerns.
• The ability to use a golf cart and play shorter 54-hole tournaments could entice Woods to compete.
• Several potential 2026 tournament locations have personal significance for Woods, including courses where he has previously won.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. ― The PGA Tour ends the 2025 season this week at the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Resort. 

The PGA Tour Champions season ended Nov. 16 with the Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix. 

The Korn Ferry Tour wrapped up Oct. 12 with its Tour Championship. 

With the brief offseason looming, a look ahead to 2026 involves several issues, including how the PGA Tour will look with reduced field sizes and exempt spots, and the PGA Tour Champions eliminating its national qualifying tournament. 

Here’s another. 

WWTWD (What will Tiger Woods do?) 

Will he play on the PGA Tour Champions next year?

Ernie Els: ‘Beat us again, if you can’ 

The short answer is no one knows because Woods underwent his seventh back surgery in October and had Achilles tendon surgery in February. He famously keeps his playing plans to himself until events are almost upon him. 

But Woods will be 50 years old on Dec. 30, and he then becomes eligible for the PGA Tour Champions. Woods still moves the needle when he’s been able to play in major championships and other spot starts, such as the Genesis Invitational he hosts in California, so imagine the impact he will have if he decides he’s healthy enough and motivated enough to play on the Champions Tour, which is mostly in moderate-to-small markets. 

“Tiger has always been pretty quiet about his plans for the future,” said Jim Furyk, host of the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends, in August. “The Champions Tour would obviously love to know his plans and for us, the players would love to have him come out. His impact would be incredible. But Tiger is Tiger. He plays things close to the vest.”  

Ernie Els joked in August when he delivered a message to Woods: “beat us again, if you can.” 

“I hope so,” Els told the Palm Beach Post in August when asked if he thinks Woods will play with the 50-and-over set. “I’ve said, please come play. And I think it can only be beneficial to him. He will get himself in golf shape. You can ride a cart without any shame, and if there was one guy that should be able to drive a cart, it’s him.”  

Woods will almost surely get the question ahead of the Hero World Challenge he hosts on Dec. 4-7 in The Bahamas.

But will he shed any more light? As Furyk said, Woods doesn’t like showing his hole cards.

RSM Classic participants are hopeful 

Three players in the field for the RSM Classic are at different stages of involvement with the PGA Tour Champions. Tournament host Davis Love III has been a Champions Tour member for 11 years. Zach Johnson will be part of the 2026 Champions Tour rookie class with Woods. And Matt Kuchar, 47, is close enough to start thinking about his future beyond the age of 50. 

But all three had the same take. 

They simply can’t predict Woods’ intentions. 

“I don’t have any idea,” Love said. “I’m hoping he’ll play. Same thing with Zach Johnson [who turns 50 on Feb. 24, 2026, and can play for the first time at the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Classic at Broken Sound, in Boca Raton]. I’m hoping these guys come out and play. It is a lot of fun. Tiger could play [senior] major championships and probably be competitive if he could get healthy. I’m hoping he’ll play, and I hope I see him in Hawaii in January. That would be a nice start to the year.” 

Johnson was non-committal on his Champions Tour future but recognized the boost that Woods in any tournament field would give the local community, sponsors and TV ratings. 

“Tiger and golf, I think, is probably a pretty universal outlook,” Johnson said. “I just want him to play and I want him to play healthy. I don’t know what that looks like. Obviously, he’s a friend and I hope that we have not seen the last of him. I hope, in some capacity, he has the ability to compete. Hopefully, he stands up for the PGA Tour Champions and what that’s all about.” 

Kuchar thinks it will all depend on Woods’ health, but isn’t discounting anything when it comes to Woods’ competitive fire. 

“With each surgery, I always think, ‘man, we might not see him again,’ and then he proves me wrong time and again,” Kuchar said. “He comes out and plays amazing golf and wins. I certainly think everybody wants to see Tiger in any capacity, play out here [on the PGA Tour], playing Champions Tour, you name it.”  

Using a golf cart might motivate Woods … or not 

Woods has had multiple back, neck and knee surgeries. He nearly lost a leg in a 2021 car accident. His body has been beaten up. 

But Woods can ride a golf cart at all Champions Tour events, with a caddie carrying the clubs. If he wants to walk at an event, the caddie can drive the cart, with the clubs in the back. 

The only rule on the Champions Tour is that a player and his bag can’t be in the cart at the same time. 

Many Champions Tour players use their sons as caddies, and Woods might see the chance for his son Charlie to caddy for him as more chances to be together. For that matter, his daughter Sam also could loop. She caddied for her father in the 2024 PNC Championship in Orlando.

Non-major Champions Tour events are also 54 holes instead of 72, and fields are smaller, with 81 players. 

But Woods’ competitive streak and pride might also make playing golf from a cart distasteful. Woods has always prided himself on being in good physical condition. 

Love said Woods shouldn’t think there’s any kind of stigma to using a cart. 

“I’m pushing for mandatory cart rule on the Champions Tour, so that we have to ride [and] everybody, including me, feels comfortable riding,” Love said.  

How much have other PGA Tour stars played on the Champions Tour?

It’s been an individual decision. Nicklaus played enough to win 10 times, eight of them senior majors, but gravitated towards courses he designed.

Lee Trevino (396 starts, 29 victories) and Arnold Palmer (319 starts, 10 victories) played often and enthusiastically. In the next generation, so have Ernie Els (129 yards, seven victories) and Fred Couples (162 starts, 14 victories). Injuries have limited Love to 57 starts.

Bernhard Langer is the ageless wonder of the PGA Tour Champions and is the all-time victory leader with 47, in 376 starts

Other stars have scarcely given the Champions Tour more than a passing nod. Greg Norman made 17 starts and Nick Faldo 13. Phil Mickelson had four starts (winning three) before leaving the Tour for LIV Golf.

Where might Tiger Woods play on the PGA Tour Champions? 

• The Tour begins the season in Hawaii with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship Jan. 22-24. But Woods didn’t play very many Tour events in Hawaii, so put a pin in that one. 
• The next two tournaments are close to Woods’ home base in Jupiter, the Chubb Classic Feb. 13-15 in Naples and the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational March 6-8 in Boca Raton. 
• The Hoag Classic, March 27-29 is at the Newport Beach Country Club in Orange County, California, where Woods grew up. 
• The Senior PGA Championship is at the Concession in Bradenton, April 16-19. Again, not far from Jupiter. 
• His next start could be the American Family Insurance Championship, June 5-7 in Madison, Wis., a team event hosted by Steve Stricker, one of Woods’ friends on the PGA Tour. 
• Woods may not be able to resist the U.S. Senior Open July 2-5 for two reasons: He can become the first player to win the USGA Grand Slam, the U.S. Junior, the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open; and then tournament is at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, the home course of Nicklaus, his boyhood idol.
• This might crowd Woods’ schedule, but a week later, the Kaulig Companies Championship is being played at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Woods won PGA Tour events at Firestone eight, count ’em, eight times. Winning the tournament also would get him a spot in The Players Championship the following year, an event he’s won twice. 
• Woods may also think hard about playing the Ally Challenge in at the Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Mich Aug. 28-30. He won the PGA Tour event there three times. 
• In terms of returning to a place where Woods had moments of glory, there’s the Pure Insurance Championship Sept. 18-20 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Woods won the Tour event at Pebble Beach in 2000, then returned four months later for his historic U.S. Open championship in which he won by a record 15 shots. 
• Another tournament in Florida Woods might play is the Constellation Furyk & Friends, Oct. 9-11 at the Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast. It’s hosted by Furyk, another Tour player with whom Woods has a good relationship. 
• Woods doesn’t have a history at the sites of the other two Senior Majors, the Regions Tradition April 30-May 3 at the Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., or the Senior British Open July 23-26 at the Gleneagles Hotel Kings Course in Scotland.