Tiger Woods, the 15-time major champion, was back swinging in public on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 — the first time he’s hit golf balls in front of onlookers since his March 27 car crash. The practice range at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey hosted the session, part of the two-day NEXUS Cup, an exclusive amateur team event Woods, 50, has hosted since 2019 to raise money for his TGR Foundation. He wasn’t competing, and hitting balls at a charity clinic shouldn’t be mistaken for preparing for a PGA Tour return — but for a man who spent much of the year dealing with a court case and undisclosed medical treatment, simply standing on a range with a club in his hands was itself the news.
Video first appeared on the TGR Live Events Instagram account, captioned “Shaping shots on the range today at NEXUS Cup.” The PGA Tour reposted it: “Tiger Woods is back on the range! His last PGA Tour start was July 2024.” Asked at the clinic how his game was progressing, Woods said, “I can hit pretty much anything,” and pinned some stiffness on a social event he’d attended the night before.
The Crash and the Court Case
Woods clipped the back of a trailer being towed by a pickup, then rolled his Land Rover on a residential street on Jupiter Island, Florida, on Friday, March 27. He climbed out through the passenger door; neither he nor the other driver was hurt, and officers arrested him on suspicion of DUI. A breathalyzer registered zero for alcohol, and Woods told officers he hadn’t had a drink that day, but Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said he declined a urine test for other drugs and showed signs of impairment — sweating heavily, lethargic, with bloodshot, glassy eyes, according to the initial police affidavit. Woods told officers he’d looked down at his phone and been distracted changing the radio just before impact, and said he’d taken prescription medication that morning. He said afterward in a statement that he was stepping away to “seek treatment and focus on my health” — reportedly spending months afterward at a rehabilitation facility in Switzerland, with court approval to travel there.
Woods pleaded no contest on September 2 at the Martin County Courthouse to willful, wanton and reckless driving and to refusing a urine test; the deal dropped the DUI charge. The reckless-driving count carried a $1,000 fine, and the court suspended his driver’s license for five years. His attorneys had earlier entered a written not-guilty plea covering DUI, property damage and test-refusal counts. Vanessa Trump, his girlfriend, accompanied him to the courthouse.
The Injuries Behind the Layoff
Woods’ trophy case holds 15 majors — three Open Championships, three U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships and five Masters — plus 82 career PGA Tour wins. The 2019 Masters was his most recent major, and the 2019 Zozo Championship his last win of any kind; his most recent PGA Tour start came at the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he missed the cut. Injuries have shaped his schedule for years: a separate 2021 car crash left him with severe lower right leg injuries, and surgeons have operated on his back seven times, most recently a disc replacement in October 2025. He sat out all four majors in 2026. His last previous appearance swinging a club publicly came in March, playing for Jupiter Links in the TGL indoor league final before the crash sidelined him.
What Could Come Next
Woods gave no timetable for a comeback, and nothing competitive is on his calendar. His 50th birthday in December 2025 opened the door to the PGA Tour Champions, the over-50 circuit that permits golf carts in competition, and speculation has also pointed toward December’s PNC Championship, the parent-child event where his son, Charlie Woods, has partnered him five times — the pair finished runner-up to John Daly and John Daly II in 2021. Liberty National, which staged the 2017 Presidents Cup and hosts the 2027 BMW Championship, gave Woods a look at another course with tour golf in its future. His own event, the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, runs November 30 to December 6.