Tiger Woods returns next week. Here’s what else is coming

When, on Friday afternoon, ESPN was released a short clip of Tiger Woods hitting on a big screen, was a reminder of what’s to come in 2025. Woods will be back to play more tournament golf (we think). The TGL season will start as well (we’re pretty sure). The PGA Tour season will kick off in Hawaii (we’re sure of it). And we will be ready to dive to the bottom.

But Woods’ appearance was also a reminder that there is some toothpaste left in the golf tube for 2024. Woods skipped last week’s World Challenge of Heroesciting his lack of willingness to play (and walk) 72 holes against the best in the world. But this week he will do it in PNC Championship in Orlando with his son, Charlie, giving us our first look at Woods’ game since the Open Championship in July.

But what else is golf squeezing in before the start of the New Year? Here are five golf things to watch before the year is out, starting with Tiger and getting progressively darker from there.

1. PNC Championship

I say this earnestly: the day BEFORE The PNC Championship is some of the best casual non-tournament programming available to golf pros throughout the year. The Golf Channel crew will be buzzing around the course, receiving wonderful nuggets of gold from the legends and their children, each relieved by the other’s presence. Just last year we had Lee Trevino talking about his daily routine and Padraig Harrington going deep diving. philosophy of parenting within a few minutes. Come for Tiger and Charlie, stay for everything else. And that’s before the tournament starts!

Once we get going, it’s also a lot of fun, especially if you’ve got the family together for the holidays – PNC is a good group watch. I’m especially excited about the addition of Fred Couples to this year’s field, and with Justin and Mike Thomas out, I think there’s a good chance we’ll see Couples in Woods’ group…

2. “The Confrontation”

I have to say, The Crypto dot com Show, which is coming to you on Tuesday, December 17th at 6pm ET from Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. Is this the bad blood battle everyone has been dreaming of? A kind. There are many big things about this: It’s Brooks and Bryson vs. Rory and Scottie, pitting four of golf’s biggest names and personalities against each other. It’s LIV vs. the PGA Tour, with the potential for the true rivalry to spill over into an exhibition match. It’s Tuesday night, no football to compete with. There are three six-hole matches, mixing formats and finishing with singles. And it’s December 17th – what else are you doing?!

Of course, maybe there’s an upside to all of this, knowing that all four of these pros want golf to come together, knowing that McIlroy and Koepka played together in a Grove XXIII members tournament last week, knowing that there are many more good things. vibration rather than rivalry between this group. But there is also a lot of competitive fire. If these guys have one thing in common, it’s that they desperately hate to lose. This is a win for us.

3. Mauritius Open

What do I know about this golf tournament? Not much more than the dates, December 19-22, defending champion Louis Oosthuizen and the fact that he calls himself “The Greatest Week in Golf.” Epic. If you live outside the United States or if you’re just at odd hours looking for golf coverage, this might be the one for you. This is the final DP World Tour event of the year – although, confusingly, it is also one of the first of the season, coming close to the opening of the global circuit in South Africa following last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge and the Alfred Dunhill Championship of this weekend. . What will happen at Mont Choisy Le Golf? Wake up early, tune in and find out.

4. ‘Warming Up’ is back

This is a potentially problematic inclusion because this is my YouTube series, but here we are. Our first season of Warming Up produced some of my favorite conversations of my professional life—I got to conduct remote interviews with a handful of mega-talents, going deep into process and mindset with everyone from Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau for Fred Couples, Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland. Who’s next? I’ll just hint that he won a major championship recently. At least one. You can subscribe here so you don’t miss it…

One of the favorites from last season, just to try:

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5. Two fascinating documentaries

I don’t know if they’re fascinating because of the actual content or just because I think it’s fascinating that they exist, period. Maybe they are literally just fascinating to me. But there are two golf team documents that I’ve partially gone through, and while I’m not ready to give a full endorsement, I’m at least intrigued as to what you’ll think of them. On YouTube There is a documentary following LIV’s Majesticks, the team co-captained by Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson, as they fight their way into the LIV 2024 season from the bottom of the table. And it will come next week unusualDocumentaries behind the construction of the TGL franchise in Boston, which should feature various setbacks – the collapse of the dome, the departure of team member Tyrrell Hatton, etc. – and an intriguing countdown to the start of the league. Do I wish the two papers had been done independently, without editorial oversight by the people involved? For sure, 1000 percent yes. That might have probed some existential questions about what we’re all doing here. But we’ll take what we’ve got. It is the middle of December after all.