Gary Player: Tiger Woods’s ‘game in big trouble’

'Can he overcome it? I don't think so' Gary Player tells John McAuley of the slipping Tiger Woods, as he is in Abu Dhabi this week announcing February's Gary Player Invitational in the capital.

Tiger Woods has dropped to No 311 in the world golf rankings. Patrick Smith / Getty Images / AFP

Gary Player, the nine-time major winner, says he has serious concerns about whether Tiger Woods can challenge at the top of golf again.

Woods is currently convalescing after undergoing a second microdisectomy surgery of the back last month, with no reported date set for his return to the competitive game other than “early 2016”.

The former world No. 1, who turns 40 in December, has already fallen to 311th in the global rankings, and is expected to drop outside the top 400 by the close of the year. This season, he played 11 times on the PGA Tour, registering a solitary top-10 finish. A 14-time major champion, Woods missed the cut at this summer’s US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship.

Player, in Abu Dhabi to announce the return of the Gary Player Invitational to the UAE capital next year, said that, although having Woods back competing for tournament titles would be positive for the game, he has considerable doubts the Californian will recapture the form that made him one of the greatest players in history.

“I see his game in big trouble,” said Player at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club on Monday. “He’s had three knee operations, two back operations and a lot of other problems in life. And then we’ve seen him struggle in tournaments, where he was getting the yips, duffing chips and hitting chips over the green. When that happens you’ve got a big problem.

“Can he overcome it? I don’t think so. But I hope he does, because golf needs Tiger Woods. He brings more people out, higher ratings on TV, sponsors, crowds – it’s fantastic. We need him. But I don’t think he’ll ever come back to be the Tiger Woods that he was, although I hope I’m wrong.”

Asked what Woods could do to turn around his game, Player replied: “I have ideas and I offered to help. It was not accepted. I have many ideas that I’d love to sit down and discuss with him. But it would be indecent and wrong to do that in public.”

The Gary Player Invitational takes place on February 8, at the Player-designed Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, Abu Dhabi. Staged there in 2011, the charity golf event returns next year under the patronage of Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development. It marks the beginning of a five-year cooperation between the Abu Dhabi Sports Council and Black Knight International, the global holding company for The Player Group.

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