On the practice range at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey, Tiger Woods took full swings with what appeared to be a mid-iron on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 — the first time the 15-time major champion has hit golf balls in public since his car crash on March 27. It was a charity event he hosts, not a return to tournament play.
Woods, 50, had come to Liberty National for the NEXUS Cup, an exclusive two-day amateur team competition that serves as a fundraiser for his TGR Foundation. Held since 2019, it traditionally features a Woods clinic, although his legal situation had left this year’s appearance uncertain.
The TGR Foundation’s live events Instagram account posted the first video of the session, and 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 wanted to know how the game was coming along and how many balls he was hitting. “I can hit pretty much anything,” Woods said, repeating the assessment when pressed on his routine. Golf influencer Tisha Alyn shared footage in which he blamed some stiffness on a late night spent socializing with guests at the event.
Vanessa Trump, his girlfriend and once a daughter-in-law to President Donald Trump, was pictured with him at the Liberty National appearance.
The Crash and the Court Case
On Friday, March 27, Woods clipped the back of a trailer being towed by a pickup that was turning into a driveway, then rolled his Land Rover SUV on a residential street near his Florida home. The passenger door was how he climbed out; the driver of the other vehicle escaped injury as well, and so did Woods. Officers arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI).
Alcohol did not register at all on a breathalyzer, which came back zero, and Woods told officers he had not had a drink that day. Investigators believed the cause might have been medication he had taken, and Woods did not appear injured but showed signs of impairment. An initial police affidavit had him sweating heavily, lethargic and slow, with bloodshot, glassy eyes.
A sheriff’s office report states that two pain pills were found in Woods’ pocket after the March crash in Jupiter, Fla., alongside signs of impairment.
Police released body camera footage of the crash showing Woods leaning on one knee and calmly explaining what happened. “I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden, boom,” Woods told officers in the footage. Changing the radio station had also distracted him, he told them. A statement he issued afterward 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. 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, with the DUI charge dropped as part of the agreement.
His penalties included roughly $1,000 in fines and court costs, plus two concurrent five-year suspensions of his driver’s license — the judge telling him any driving during that period would send him “immediately back to jail.” A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but the court treats it as a conviction. Vanessa Trump accompanied him to the courthouse and sat behind him in a mostly empty courtroom.
Woods traveled to Switzerland for rehab in the spring and had been largely out of the public eye since the crash. He remains allowed to drive a golf cart on the course, at least in Florida, despite the license suspension.
The Injuries Behind the Layoff
His 15 major titles break down as five Masters, four PGA Championships, three U.S. Opens and three Open Championships, and he owns 82 career PGA Tour victories. He won his last major at the 2019 Masters at Augusta National. The 2019 Zozo Championship delivered his last win of any kind, and Royal Troon hosted his most recent PGA Tour start, the 2024 Open Championship, where he missed the cut.
Injury has dictated his schedule for years. A separate car crash in 2021 left him with severe lower right leg injuries. Surgeons have operated on his back seven times, 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.
What Could Come Next
Organizers have scheduled no competitive return, and Woods offered no timetable for one either. Having turned 50 in December 2025, he is eligible for 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 he and his son, Charlie Woods, have played five times. The pair finished runner-up at the 2021 edition to the father-and-son team of John Daly and John Daly II.
Liberty National, through the NEXUS Cup, also showed Woods a course with tour golf in its future. It is due to stage the 2027 BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the 2027 FedExCup season, having already hosted the 2017 Presidents Cup and a FedExCup Playoffs event in 2019.