The cheers were still reverberating around Augusta National after Tiger Woods’s triumph in the Masters on Sunday, but fans were already starting to look ahead. Is Woods back after a decade of injury and personal adversity? Could he, at age 43, regain the form that had him destroying fields from 1997 to 2008? Or was the comeback a kind of fool’s gold, a last hurrah before the decline sets in again?
One thing’s for sure: People will be watching. Here’s what’s next for Woods.
P.G.A. Championship, May 16-19
The wait for the second major is shorter than usual this year because the P.G.A. has been moved from its regular August date. One goal was to get the least-heralded major a little more attention. Woods’s win in the Masters has helped that cause hugely.
Woods has won four P.G.A.s, most recently in 2007. The tournament this year will be played at Bethpage Black on Long Island. The difficult Black course has never hosted the P.G.A. before, but it was the site of the U.S. Open in 2009, when Woods tied for sixth, and in 2002, when Woods won, beating Phil Mickelson by three shots.
Woods is currently listed as one of three favorites at 10-1, along with Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy.
U.S. Open, June 13-16
The United States Open returns this year to one of the grandest sites in golf, Pebble Beach, on the Monterey Peninsula in California.
Woods has three U.S. Open victories in his career. Before Sunday, his last major win was the 2008 Open.
Pebble Beach also hosted the Open in 2010, when Woods was tied for fourth, and 2000, when he crushed the field by 15 strokes.
Woods, Johnson and McIlroy are again the three favorites for this tournament.
British Open, July 18-21
The British Open, or just the Open as it is called in Europe, will be headed to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1951. The course, on the North Atlantic, is expected to continue the Open’s tradition of unpredictable and challenging weather conditions.
Woods has three British Opens, with his most recent victory in 2006. He and McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, are the two favorites.
Presidents Cup, Dec. 12-15
Woods, once an automatic fixture on the American teams for the Ryder and Presidents Cups, missed out for several years before returning to the Ryder Cup last year as a captain’s pick. He finished the event 0-4.
He was named the captain for this year’s Presidents Cup, and after his return to form, it looks as if he will be a playing captain.
Though he has been a part of American teams since 1997, Woods has at times displayed a lack of enthusiasm for team events.
The United States has won the Presidents Cup, against a team of non-European international golfers, seven straight times. This year’s event will be held in Melbourne, Australia.
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