Golf Without Tiger Woods? His Fellow Players Can Barely Imagine

At the same time, McIlroy was perfectly positioned to address the looming question as Woods begins yet another long, arduous recovery: Will golf, and the sports world in general, be prepared if Woods cannot summon yet another comeback?

“We’re all sort of heading towards that day that Tiger wasn’t going to be a part of the game,” McIlroy said as he prepared for a PGA Tour event this week in Central Florida. “I’m not saying that that was soon.”

But McIlroy saw the wreckage of the S.U.V. Woods was driving.

“It’s inevitable that one day he won’t be a part of it,” McIlroy said, “and that’s going to be just something that the game of golf and the tour is going to have to deal with and adapt to.”

McIlroy holds out hope that Woods will return to the tour, yet he conceded: “It may be the end of seeing the genius at work with a club in his hand. But there’s still a lot of other ways that he can affect the game in a great way.”

McIlroy, who has assumed a role as an influential voice for players on the PGA Tour, may have been more forthright than any of his peers on Wednesday, but on the subject of how much the tour will miss Woods, he was not alone.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/sports/tiger-woods-golf-pga-crash.html