Tiger Woods announces he will return to golf in 2 weeks so he can play with his son

• Tiger Woods' return to golf is sooner than we thought.

• Woods will play in the PNC Championship — a two-day event that pairs pros with children or parents.

• Woods said that while it would take time to return to the PGA Tour, he could take part in a "hit-and-giggle."

Tiger Woods will be back competing on a golf course in two weeks, even if he's much further away from taking on a PGA tournament field.

Woods announced that he will play in the PNC Championship alongside his son Charlie, as he did in 2020.

Golf.com first reported that Woods was considering playing. The PNC Championship is a 36-hole event that pairs PGA pros with family members, usually their children or parents, for a bit of light-hearted competition.

According to the Golf.com story, a person familiar with Woods' progress said he would "test it next week and make a call" about his playing shape.

Woods has not played since being involved in a devastating single-car crash in February. Speaking publicly for the first time since his crash last week ahead of the Hero World Challenge, Woods said that while he would work to compete on the PGA Tour again, his days of being a full-timer were over.

"I think something that is realistic is playing the [PGA] Tour one day—never full-time, ever again—but pick and choose, just like Mr. [Ben] Hogan did. Pick and choose a few events a year, and you play around that," Woods told Golf Digest's Henni Koyack in a Zoom interview.

While Woods is likely not yet ready to play at a PGA Tour level, taking part in the PNC Championship in just two weeks isn't out of the question, given the lower stakes of the event. Woods hinted at this while speaking with reporters ahead of the Hero World Challenge.

"I'll put it to you this way — as far as playing at the Tour level, I don't know when that's going to happen," Woods said. "Now, I'll play a round here or there, a little hit-and-giggle. I can do something like that."

Playing two rounds teamed up with his son in a casual competition would certainly qualify as a "hit-and-giggle."

Further, features of the tournament would naturally make it easier for Woods to compete. He'd be allowed to use a golf cart rather than walk the course, only be playing two full rounds, and be trading shots with his son Charlie, who could handle tee shots that allow Tiger to skip over long drives that might still leave him strained.

Conveniently, the PNC Championship currently has one spot left open.

It may be a while until we see Woods fighting for another green jacket or going toe-to-toe with the world's best in a PGA field, but his return to the course in a casual sense might be much closer than anticipated.

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