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Tiger Woods reveals 2023 schedule plan and calls for Greg Norman’s exit in blistering Hero presser

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When Tiger speaks, the world of golf listens.

On Tuesday, Woods, who’s hosting his week’s Hero World Challenge in Albany, Bahamas spoke to the media. During the press conference, he touched on numerous topics including his health, LIV Golf and the Official World Golf Rankings.

Speaking of his health and prospects for 2023, Woods said in an effort to ramp up for the season he may have overdone it and caused a Plantar Fascistas issue in his foot that is keeping him out of action in this week’s event.

“It’s a circle with me right now. As I was ramping up and had to walk more, the worse it got. When you get Plantar Fasciitis, the worst thing you can do is walk, and I was walking more and more, trying to get my legs ready for this event. I just kept making it worse. I had to shut it down and unfortunately, I will just be the host of the event and Ranger Rick out here,” said the 15-time major champion.

“It’s going to take probably a month or two of rest. But also, it was the ramping-up process that did it. It’s a balancing act, right? How hard do you push it to make progress, while not pushing it too hard to go off the edge and you set yourself back? That’s been the balancing act the whole year. I did a lot of beach walks trying to simulate the sand out here, and my foot just did not like that very much.”

The 15-time major winner did say he should be all set to compete in both “The Match” and the PNC Championship with his son Charlie because he can use a cart in both of those events. However, as he’s said in the past, Woods remained adamantly against using a cart in any PGA TOUR event going forward.

“On the PGA Tour, I would never use a cart. My teammate (in Stanford) was Casey Martin, and what he did with the ADA (American Disability Act, under which Martin tried to be permitted to use carts), I voted against it. I think walking is an integral part of the game at our level and I will never take a golf cart until it’s sanctioned.”

When looking towards his 2023 schedule, Tiger said he isn’t looking to play much more than the major championships.

“The goal is to play just the major championships and maybe one or two more. That’s it. I mean, that’s all I can do physically.

I don’t have much left in this leg, so gear up for the biggest ones and hopefully, lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win and I remember how to do that. It’s just giving myself a chance to get out there again.”

Woods, who’s now ranked 1,266th in the world also touched on the OWGR system, which has been a highly debated topic due to both LIV and the miniscule number of points that DP World Tour events have been shelling out in some star-studded, albeit top-heavy fields of late.

“It’s a flawed system. That’s something we all here recognise. The field at Dubai got less points than Sea Island and more of the top players were there in Dubai, so obviously there’s a flawed system.”

“How do you fix it? You know, those are meetings we’re going to have to have. We’re going to have to have it with OWGR committee and as well as the main tours that are involved in it and somehow come up with a better system than the one that is in place now.

“I remember in my career when I had a big lead (at the top), and I didn’t have to play a single tournament the next year and I still would be ranked No1. We changed that system then. It has been changed in the past and I’m sure this will be changed hopefully soon.”

The 46-year-old also spoke about LIV Golf, saying that in addition to all of the lawsuits being resolved, the other necessity is for LIV to get rid of Greg Norman if they ever want to hold legitimate peace discussions with the PGA Tour.

“I think Greg [Norman] has to go, first of all, and then obviously the litigation against us and then our countersuit against them. Those would then have to be at a stay as well, then we can talk, we can all talk freely.

“Right now, as it is, not right now, not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity towards the tour itself. I don’t see that happening,” said Tiger of the possibility of LIV and the PGA Tour coexisting. “But why would you change anything if you’ve got a lawsuit against you? They sued us first.”

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19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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