Tiger Woods took full swings in front of a gallery on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, working through what looked like a mid-iron on the practice range at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey. It was the first time the 15-time major champion had hit golf balls in public since his March 27 car crash — though the setting was a charity event he hosts, not a return to tournament play.
The NEXUS Cup, an exclusive amateur team event that runs two days and raises money for his TGR Foundation, drew Woods, 50, to Liberty National. Organizers have staged the event since 2019 and traditionally build in 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 at the clinic asked how his game was progressing and how many balls he was hitting. “I can hit pretty much anything. I’m a little stiff today because, obviously, last night, all having fun and hanging out,” Woods said. He repeated the assessment when pressed on his routine.
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, and rolled his Land Rover SUV on a residential street in Jupiter, Fla., near his home. The passenger door was how he climbed out, and the other vehicle’s driver escaped injury as well, as did he. Deputies arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI).
Alcohol came back at zero on a breathalyzer, and Woods told officers he had not had a drink that day. He passed the breath test, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said, but declined a urinalysis screening for other drugs; investigators believed medication he had taken might have been the cause. Woods did not appear injured but showed signs of impairment, the sheriff said, and according to the initial police affidavit he was sweating heavily, lethargic and slow, with bloodshot, glassy eyes. Two pain pills were found in Woods’ pocket after the crash, according to a sheriff’s office report that is cited as saying he showed signs of impairment.
Police have released body camera footage of the March 27 crash that shows Woods on one knee, calmly explaining events. “I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden, boom,” he said. Asked about prescription medication, he answered that he took a few, and that he had taken them earlier that morning. A statement he issued afterward said he was stepping away for a period of time to “seek treatment and focus on my health.”
His case had ended nearly two weeks before the range session. 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; prosecutors dropped the DUI charge as part of the agreement. 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, plus two concurrent five-year suspensions of his driver’s license. He is still permitted to drive a golf cart on the course, “at least in Florida,” despite those suspensions. With a no-contest plea, a defendant makes no admission of guilt and offers no defense, but the court treats the result as a conviction. His girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, once a daughter-in-law to President Donald Trump, came with him to the courthouse and sat behind him in a mostly empty courtroom.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing, Martin County State Attorney Thomas Bakkedahl said: “Of all the people in the world who should not get behind the wheel of the car, it’s the gentleman who is one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.”
The Injuries Behind the Layoff
His 15 major titles break down as three Open Championships, three U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships and five Masters, and he owns 82 career PGA Tour victories. He last won a major at the 2019 Masters at Augusta National, and the 2019 Zozo Championship delivered his last victory of any kind. He missed the cut at Royal Troon in the 2024 Open Championship, which remains his most recent PGA Tour start.
Injury has shaped his calendar for years. A separate car crash in 2021 left him with severe lower right leg injuries, and surgeons have performed seven back operations on him, most recently a disk replacement in October 2025 that addressed pain and mobility problems. In the spring, after the crash, he traveled to Switzerland for rehabilitation and has been largely out of public view since. Over the past year-plus he has also been working his way back from a torn Achilles tendon on top of the disk replacement surgery. He sat out the 2026 Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship. Until Liberty National, his last public swing had come in March, playing for his Jupiter Links team in the indoor TGL final.
What Could Come Next
Nothing competitive is on the schedule, and Woods gave no timetable for a return. He turned 50 in December 2025, making him eligible for the over-50s PGA Tour Champions, where competitors may use golf carts in competition. Speculation has also pointed to December’s PNC Championship, the parent-child event in which he and his son, Charlie Woods, have teamed five times. That pairing came in runner-up at the 2021 edition behind the father-and-son team of John Daly and John Daly II.
The NEXUS Cup also put Woods on a course with tour golf in its future. Liberty National, which staged the 2017 Presidents Cup and a FedExCup Playoffs event in 2019, will host the 2027 BMW Championship as the penultimate event of the 2027 FedExCup season. Woods also hosts the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, scheduled for November 30 to December 6.
