Tiger Woods is on the clock! The Ryder Cup captaincy is on the table for him, and the question is no longer whether he wants this role; it is whether his body and his schedule will allow him to take it on. Whatever it is, he needs to make a decision soon.

The PGA of America has set a soft deadline before the Masters in April for Woods to confirm whether he wants the Ryder Cup captaincy at Adare Manor, Ireland. Sources told the AP that officials are not framing it as an ultimatum, but that the clock is ticking. Woods has not shut the door on the captaincy, but he is weighing everything before making a decision.

“I’m trying to figure out what we’re trying to do with our tour,” the 15x major winner said. “That’s been driving me hours upon hours every day, trying to figure out if I can do our team—Team USA and our players and everyone involved in the Ryder Cup—if I can do it justice.”

His workload away from the course is not making that decision any easier. Woods serves as chairman of the Future Competition Committee, which is working through one of the most complex schedule overhauls in PGA Tour history. Woods candidly shared that he spent a lot of hours practicing in his prime, but it doesn’t even compare to what he has done in the boardroom.

Woods’s hesitation makes more sense when you factor in what his body has been through. Woods ruptured his Achilles tendon in March 2025 and followed that with a seventh back surgery in October 2025 to replace a disc in his lower back. He has not competed professionally in over a year. At 50, recovery is slower, though he told CBS some good news at the Genesis Invitational.

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The 82x Tour winner shared that the Achilles is no longer the issue, but the back remains uncertain. This uncertainty is now shaping two conversations at once: whether he lines up at Augusta in April 2026 and whether he commits to leading Team USA in 2027. Neither of the two is impossible as of now.

When a reporter asked Woods if he is ruling out this year’s Augusta showdown, the golfer simply said, “No.”

Notably, this is not the first time the captaincy has landed at his door. In July 2024, Woods turned down the role for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, citing his injury and new Tour responsibilities.

“With my new responsibilities to the Tour and time commitments involved, I felt like I would not be able to commit the time to Team USA,” he said at the time. The PGA of America waited longer than any previous cycle before naming Keegan Bradley as captain.

While Woods’s individual Ryder Cup playing record, 13 wins, 21 losses, and 3 halves in 8 appearances, is surprisingly modest for a player of his stature, the PGA’s persistence likely stems from his proven leadership, most notably when he captained the American squad to a comeback victory at the 2019 Presidents Cup. He became the first playing captain since Hale Irwin in 1994, and the US had a brilliant comeback on Sunday. They were trailing before the final day of singles matches but won six and tied four of the 12 matches.

An answer before Augusta will tell a lot about what Tiger Woods prioritizes heading into 2027. The captaincy question is only half the story. His playing future at Augusta has drawn just as much outside scrutiny.

PGA Pro takes an unfiltered take on Tiger Woods’s probable Masters return

While Woods kept everyone guessing with a one-word answer at Riviera, former US Open champion Rich Beem was far more direct on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast. His core argument was simple: showing up at Augusta is very different from being ready for it.

Beem pointed out that almost every shot at Augusta National is played from an uneven lie, whether it is a second shot, a pitch, or even a putt. That kind of muscle memory cannot be built on a driving range. It needs competitive rounds with a scorecard in hand, and Woods has not played a tournament in over a year.

Beem did acknowledge that Tiger Woods looked physically strong at the Genesis Invitational, but he was careful to separate appearance from tournament readiness. Augusta’s walking demands across 72 holes are what will ultimately expose any weakness. His legs, not his ball-striking, are the real question mark heading into April.

Beem was not alone in that assessment.

Golf analysts Trey Wingo and Justin Ray echoed similar concerns, with Wingo pointing to Augusta’s terrain as the core issue. His argument was straightforward: for anyone who has not walked the course, the sheer elevation and gradient of Augusta National are difficult to appreciate from the outside, and that physical reality is what makes a cold return there especially risky for Woods.

Nobody dismissed Woods entirely. Afterall, he has won at Augusta five times and understands the course better than almost anyone but Beem’s concern is whether the body can hold up across four competitive rounds at one of the most physically demanding walks in major championship golf.