Tiger Woods is swinging a golf club again.
The 15-time major champion was spotted hitting balls Tuesday morning at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey, marking the first time Woods has been seen practicing on a golf course since his DUI arrest earlier this year.
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Video from Liberty National showed the 50-year-old working through shots on the driving range during the Nexus Cup, an exclusive amateur golf event.
It was a relatively ordinary scene by golf standards. For Woods, however, simply standing on a range with a club in his hands represented a notable development after months dominated by matters far removed from competition.
Woods has not played a professional tournament since the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon. He had been working toward another return before a March car crash in Florida and the legal case that followed again interrupted any potential path back to competitive golf.
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Now, for the first time since then, there is visual evidence of Woods hitting golf balls again.
Tiger Woods Returns to the Range Months After DUI
Woods’ appearance at Liberty National comes less than six months after the March crash that resulted in his DUI case.
According to police, Woods was driving a Land Rover when it collided with a truck pulling a trailer before rolling onto its side. Woods escaped without significant physical injuries.
The case continued through the summer before Woods changed his plea earlier this month. He pleaded no contest as part of an agreement with prosecutors and avoided a trial.
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Following his arrest, Woods received court approval to travel to Switzerland, where he spent months at a rehabilitation facility.
Tuesday’s footage offered a very different picture.
Rather than another courtroom appearance or update surrounding the crash, Woods was back in golf clothes, on a range and hitting shots.
The setting was significant, too. Liberty National sits across the Hudson River from Manhattan and has hosted multiple PGA Tour events, including editions of The Northern Trust and The Barclays.
Woods was not competing in the Nexus Cup, and hitting balls at an amateur event should not be confused with preparing for an imminent PGA Tour return. Still, after such an extended absence, his appearance inevitably raises a question golf fans have asked repeatedly throughout the latter stages of his career.
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Could Tiger Woods be working toward another comeback?
For now, there is no announced return date.
Tiger Woods’ Competitive Golf Future Remains Unclear
Woods’ latest absence began long before the March crash.
He last appeared in an official professional tournament at Royal Troon in July 2024, where he missed the cut at The Open. His already limited schedule had increasingly centered around major championships as injuries made the physical demands of tournament golf more difficult.
Woods has repeatedly defied expectations during a career filled with comeback attempts.
His most extraordinary came in 2019, when he won the Masters for his 15th major championship after years of back problems and multiple surgeries had cast doubt on whether he could contend at the highest level again.
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His February 2021 car crash presented another enormous physical hurdle. Woods suffered severe injuries to his right leg and ankle, yet eventually returned to Augusta National and played the 2022 Masters.
That history is precisely why footage of Woods hitting balls carries more weight than it might for virtually any other golfer.
A range session is not a tournament entry. It does not establish that his body can withstand walking 18 holes for four consecutive days, nor does it reveal whether Woods intends to make another competitive return.
But it does establish something that had been uncertain throughout the past several months.
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Tiger Woods is playing golf again.
And after another long stretch away from the game, that alone is enough to put the golf world on notice.
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