Rory McIlory: "Tiger Woods, golf now is far"

• golf

Rory McIlroy spoke about the Tiger Woods situation.

Rory McIlroy, statements

"At this stage I think everyone should just be grateful that he's here, that he's alive, that his kids haven't lost their dad. That's the most important thing.

Golf is so far from the equation right now, it's not even on the map at this point." “Just hoping out of a bad situation, the best possible outcome and I hope he can recover from it and we can see him on the golf course as early as possible.

I know he underwent surgery early this year, so I hope he didn't damage anything he had done already", Jon Rahm said. Few days ago, Tiger Woods said he's didn't know when he would return from a fifth back surgery, and he could not give a definitive answer Sunday when asked if he would be at the Masters.

"God, I hope so", Woods on the CBS broadcast of The Genesis Invitational. Woods, at Riviera to hand out the trophy as the tournament host, had a microdiscectomy Dec. 23. It was the fifth surgery on his back, and the first since a procedure to fuse his lower spine in April 2017.

"I'm feeling fine. I'm a little bit stiff. I have one more MRI scheduled so that we'll see if the annulus (fibrosus) is scarred over finally and see if I can start doing more activities. But still in the gym, still doing the mundane stuff that you have to do for rehab, the little things before I can start gravitating towards something a little more".

Woods had not played since he joined 11-year-old Charlie at the PNC Challenge a few days before his surgery. "I don't know what the plan is", he said when asked if he would try to play before the Masters.