Tiger Woods, the 15-time major champion, was back swinging in public on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 — the first time he has hit golf balls in front of onlookers since his March 27, 2026 car crash. The practice range at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey hosted the session, where Woods took full swings with what appeared to be a mid-iron. The setting was a charity event he hosts, not a return to tournament play.
Money raised at the event goes to his TGR Foundation, and Woods, 50, was on hand for it. The NEXUS Cup is a two-day exclusive amateur team event. The tournament has been held since 2019 and traditionally features a Woods clinic, although his appearance this year had been uncertain given his legal situation.
Video of the session first appeared on the TGR Foundation’s live events Instagram account. The PGA Tour reposted it with 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
The master of ceremonies at the clinic asked how his game was progressing and how many balls he was hitting. “I can hit pretty much anything,” Woods said, giving the same assessment when pressed on his routine. Golf influencer Tisha Alyn shared footage in which he pinned some stiffness on a late night spent socializing with guests at the event.
The Crash and the Court Case
Woods clipped the back of a trailer being towed by a pickup that was turning into a driveway on Friday, March 27, then rolled his Land Rover SUV on a residential street near his Florida home. He climbed out through the passenger door, and neither he nor the driver of the other vehicle was hurt. Officers arrested him 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; investigators, he said, believed medication Woods had taken might have been the cause. Woods did not appear injured but showed signs of impairment, the sheriff said, and the initial police affidavit described him as sweating heavily, lethargic and slow, with bloodshot, glassy eyes.
By his own account to officers, Woods had looked down at his phone just before the impact, and changing the radio station had distracted him, he said. Asked about prescription medication, he said he took a few and had taken them earlier that morning. He said in a statement afterward that he was stepping away for a period of time to “seek treatment and focus on my health.”
Nearly two weeks separated the range session from the end of his case. Woods pleaded no contest on Wednesday, September 2, at the Martin County Courthouse in Florida to willful, wanton and reckless driving and to refusing to submit to a urine test; the agreement dropped the DUI charge. His attorneys had earlier filed a written not-guilty plea covering counts of DUI, property damage and test refusal.
The driving count carried a $1,000 fine and the refusal another $500. The court also handed Woods two concurrent five-year suspensions of his driver’s license. A defendant entering a no-contest plea offers no defense rather than admitting guilt, 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, taking a seat behind him in a mostly empty courtroom.
The Injuries Behind the Layoff
His trophy case holds 15 major titles — three Open Championships, three U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships and five Masters — plus 82 career PGA Tour victories. Augusta National provided the most recent major, the 2019 Masters, while the 2019 Zozo Championship stands as his last win of any kind. Royal Troon hosted his most recent PGA Tour start, the 2024 Open Championship, where he missed the cut.
Injuries have dictated his schedule for years. A separate car crash in 2021 left him with severe lower right leg injuries, and surgeons have operated seven times on his back, most recently performing a disk replacement in October 2025 to address pain and mobility problems. The 2026 Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship all went ahead without him. Jupiter Links, his team in the indoor TGL final, gave the public its last look at him striking a golf ball in March, before Liberty National.
What Could Come Next
Nothing competitive is on his calendar, and Woods gave no timetable for a comeback. His 50th birthday, in December 2025, opened the door to the over-50s PGA Tour Champions, a circuit where players are permitted to use golf carts in competition. Speculation has also pointed toward December’s PNC Championship, the parent-child event in which his son, Charlie Woods, has partnered him five times; the pair 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 staged the 2017 Presidents Cup and a FedExCup Playoffs event in 2019, and it will host the 2027 BMW Championship as the penultimate event of the 2027 FedExCup season. The Hero World Challenge, which Woods hosts in the Bahamas, is scheduled for November 30 to December 6.