Tiger Woods returns to Riviera to play first event of the year

Tiger Woods is returning to competition for the first time without the use of a cart since July, announcing Friday he will play at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles.

Woods was hopeful of playing next week's tournament at Riviera, where he is the host of an event that typically had the strongest field of the West Coast swing even before it became elevated with a $20 million purse.

The uncertainty came from a bout with plantar fasciitis as he was preparing to play in December. That kept him from playing in his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He played a made-for-TV exhibition over 12 holes and the PNC Championship with his son.

Both times he was allowed to ride in a cart. Carts are not allowed on the PGA Tour — Casey Martin used one under the Americans with Disabilities Act — and Woods has said he was not interested in using one to play at the highest level.

“I'm ready to play an ACTUAL PGA Tour event next week,” Woods said on Twitter, a reference to playing only three majors last year. It will be his first regular PGA Tour event since Oct. 25, 2020, when he tied for 72nd against a 78-man field in his title defense of the Zozo Championship. 

Woods was expected to play at December's Hero World Challenge, a small-field tournament featuring top-ranked golfers that he annually hosts in the Bahamas, but bowed out because of plantar fasciitis, a foot disorder that he said was related to the injuries he suffered in the 2021 car crash.

"The plantar fasciitis is no fun, and now I get to truly recover and heal and progress forward on this because there's so many good things that I've been able to do physically, to be able to hit the golf ball and practice and do everything in a standstill,'' he said in December. "But I haven't been able to get from Point A to Point B, and obviously going to work on this.''