Tiger Woods, the 15-time major champion, hit golf balls in public on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, for the first time since his March 27 car crash, taking full swings with what appeared to be a mid-iron on the practice range at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey — at a charity event he hosts, not a return to tournament play.
Woods, 50, was at Liberty National for the NEXUS Cup, a two-day exclusive amateur team event that raises money for his TGR Foundation. Held since 2019, it traditionally features a Woods clinic, although his appearance this year had been uncertain given his legal situation.
The first video of the session was posted to the TGR Foundation’s live events Instagram account and reposted by the PGA Tour, which added the caption: “Tiger Woods is back on the range! His last PGA Tour start was July 2024.” Woods shared the clip himself.
What Woods Said at the Clinic
At the clinic, the master of ceremonies asked how his game was progressing and how many balls he was hitting. “I can hit pretty much anything,” Woods said, repeating the assessment when pressed on his routine. In footage shared by golf influencer Tisha Alyn, he blamed some stiffness on a late night spent socializing with guests at the event.
The Crash and the Court Case
On Friday, March 27, Woods rolled his Land Rover SUV on a residential street near his Florida home after clipping the back of a trailer being towed by a pickup that was turning into a driveway. He got out through the passenger door, and neither he nor the driver of the other vehicle was hurt. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI).
A breathalyzer registered zero for alcohol, and Woods told officers he had not had a drink that day. Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Woods passed the breath test but declined a urinalysis screening for other drugs, and that investigators believed medication he had taken might have been the cause. The sheriff said Woods did not appear injured but showed signs of impairment, and the initial police affidavit described him as sweating heavily, lethargic and slow, with bloodshot, glassy eyes.
Woods told officers he had looked down at his phone just before the impact and said he had been distracted changing the radio station. Asked about prescription medication, he said he took a few and had taken them earlier that morning. In a statement afterward, he said he was stepping away for a period of time to “seek treatment and focus on my health.”
The range session came nearly two weeks after his case ended. On Wednesday, September 2, at the Martin County Courthouse in Florida, Woods pleaded no contest to willful, wanton and reckless driving and to refusing to submit to a urine test, and the DUI charge was dropped as part of the agreement. Earlier in the case, his attorneys had filed a written not-guilty plea covering counts of DUI, property damage and test refusal.
He was fined $1,000 on the driving count and $500 for the refusal, and he received two concurrent five-year suspensions of his driver’s license. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt — the defendant offers no defense — but the court treats it as a conviction. Vanessa Trump, his girlfriend and once a daughter-in-law to President Donald Trump, accompanied him to the courthouse and sat behind him in a mostly empty courtroom.
The Injuries Behind the Layoff
Woods holds 15 major titles — three Open Championships, three U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships and five Masters — along with 82 career PGA Tour victories. His last major came at the 2019 Masters at Augusta National, and his last win of any kind at the 2019 Zozo Championship. His most recent PGA Tour start was the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he missed the cut.
Injuries have dictated his schedule for years. He sustained severe lower right leg injuries in a separate car crash in 2021 and has undergone seven back operations, the most recent a disk replacement in October 2025 to address pain and mobility problems. He sat out the 2026 Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship. Before Liberty National, the public last saw him strike a golf ball in March, when he played for his Jupiter Links team in the indoor TGL final.
What Could Come Next
No competitive return has been scheduled, and Woods gave no timetable for one. He turned 50 in December 2025, which makes him eligible for the over-50s PGA Tour Champions, where players are permitted to use golf carts in competition. There has also been speculation that he could turn up at December’s PNC Championship, the parent-child event he has played five times with his son, Charlie Woods; the two finished runner-up to the father-and-son team of John Daly and John Daly II at the 2021 edition.
The NEXUS Cup also gave Woods a look at a course with tour golf in its future. Liberty National will host the 2027 BMW Championship as the penultimate event of the 2027 FedExCup season, after staging the 2017 Presidents Cup and a FedExCup Playoffs event in 2019. The Hero World Challenge, which Woods hosts in the Bahamas, is scheduled for November 30 to December 6.