Tiger Woods takes the field to play in the seniors tournament from the major winner

Tiger Woods turns 50 next month, which opens the door to a new golf arena for the 15-time major champion.

Woods has remained mum on the idea of ​​making it to the senior circuit, but several PGA Tour greats have encouraged him to take a look. Jim Furyk is the latest member of the PGA Tour Champions to play a course at Woods.

“The first thing I would say is you have to dip your toe in,” Furyk said Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard. “When I turned 50, I still wanted to play on the PGA Tour. I thought I still had a little bit left. The first full year I could play one of the Com tours, I played seven PGA Tour events and 15 Champions Tour events. After that, every year — I went to three (events}, then I went to one, and then I went, yeah, it’s time for me to keep watching once. see if you like it.”

The 2003 US Open champion noted that the 54-hole tournament and cart rules make it less of a physical tussle than the PGA Tour, which is a selling point for the older majors.

“It’s a lot less taxing — on all of us — it’s a lot less taxing on your body,” Furyk told Hoggard. “It’s less taxing on your body. Three-round tournament. It’s a track meet. You shoot one or two under a day and you think I’ve got to shoot 63 to get back into this tournament. But I’d say dip a toe in. Come and see if you like it, enjoy it. And one at a time almost everyone I’ve talked to — but you might need a few months like the champions, one at a time. That’s a little more fun, a little more easy on my body.

Earlier this year, Ernie Els offered an easy challenge to Woods to join the circle of elders and see if he could still dominate his contemporaries. Jack Nicklaus and Bernhard Langer have suggested that Woods will eventually join him on the PGA Champions Tour.

If that were to eventually happen, PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady told Golf Channel’s Damon Hack that the circuit is prepared to face anything that comes with Tiger Woods at an event.

“The answer is yes, we’re ready. We’re well prepared,” Brady said on Golf Channel about Woods’ potential debut on the old circuit. “We’ve done some whiteboarding over the last year in preparation for Tiger turning 50, and if and when he plays, our tours will be ready.”

At this time, Woods’ plan to return to competitive golf is unknown. He did not play on the PGA Tour this season after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon in March. In September, Woods announced that he would undergo surgery to replace a disc in his back.

Furyk remembers what it was like when Woods arrived on the PGA Tour scene and changed everything. If Woods decides to take on the PGA Tour champions, Furyk knows it will be a huge boon to the senior circuit.

“Big impact,” Furyk told Hoggard. “You remember when he came to the PGA Tour, I don’t think any of us had any idea. It hit us like a ton of bricks in terms of how quickly things moved, the safety, the fans, the excitement. But the economic impact on the tour, in the cities he played in, the events he played in was astronomical. For us, I think if he does, it would be a big step to be ready to play. boost for our tour.”

Furyk added: “Just because we’re older doesn’t mean we’re not competitive anymore. We loosened up a bit, but it’s still very competitive out there and it’s nice that we still have that opportunity.”

You can watch Furyk chat with Golf Channel here.

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