‘It’s incredible for all the fans,’ Woods told ESPN on Tuesday night before his TGL match.
Just 24 hours earlier, the PGA Tour announced Jan. 12 that Koepka, who left LIV Golf last month, would be allowed back under a one-time Returning Member Program extended to former major champions from the past four years.
‘The fan initiative program that we did last year, what they wanted, they want to see the best play against the best,’ Woods, a member of the Tour’s policy board, said. ‘And for Brooks to want to come back, a year early, and he was able to do that.’
Kopeka, a five-time major champion and winner of the 2023 PGA Championship, is scheduled to make his official return at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego at the end of this month.
Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith and Jon Rahm are also eligible to come back to the PGA Tour, but all three have declined the invitations, which must be accepted by Feb. 2.
In the interview with ESPN, Woods also discussed his own return to playing on the PGA Tour following back surgery last October to replace a herniated disk. He said his doctors have just cleared him to hit short- and mid-irons.
‘Whenever that time comes when I start hitting drivers and I start playing at home and start doing all the different things, I will have been away from the game for a year and a half,’ he said.
‘So I will be very rusty. And so there’s a lot that goes into it, so my prep is going to have to be a little bit different from my other procedures I’ve had in the past. I’ve had to stay a lot more patient with myself. I get sore faster, I guess because I’m 50. And that happens.’
Woods hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event since the 2024 British Open.
