What a successful 2025 season might look like for Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods hasn't made more than five PGA Tour starts in a season since 2020. Based on his most recent comments, that streak isn't going to end in 2025.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the Hero World Challenge this week, Woods, 48, admitted he has a "long way to go" before he's ready to tee it up alongside the world's best. 

"I'm not tournament-sharp yet," Woods told reporters Tuesday, per ESPN. "No, I'm still not there. And these are 20 of the best players in the world, and I'm not sharp enough to compete against them at this level. When I'm ready to compete and play at this level, then I will."

This is a much different tone than what we heard from Woods at this time last year. Ahead of the 2023 Hero World Challenge, Woods unveiled his plan to play once a month throughout the 2024 PGA Tour season. That didn't exactly pan out. Woods played in all four major championships — missing the cut in three — but his only other PGA Tour start came at the Genesis Invitational in February. He withdrew in the middle of the second round because of illness. 

This paints a grim picture of Woods' 2025 campaign because the theme leading up to 2024 was optimism based on how good he felt about his body. Even though he felt great mentally and physically, Woods teed it up only five times and wasn't competitive in any of those tournaments.

Now, two months after undergoing his sixth spine surgery, Woods' mindset has flipped from optimism to pessimism.