This was written in Feb - somewhat helpful
Can he play the majors?
Woods won the Masters and PGA Championship four times each and can thus play in both events for the rest of his golfing life.
At the U.S. Open, Tiger has a 10-year exemption for winning in 2008 at Torrey Pines that gets him into the second major of the year through 2018, but that comes with a big asterisk. If he shows any inclination to play, he will likely get a USGA special exemption, probably as many as he wants. Jack Nicklaus received eight exemptions while Arnold Palmer got six, including one at Oakmont in 1994 for his final appearance at his national championship.
At The Open, Woods can play through the age of 60, having won the Claret Jug three times in his career.
How long can he play on the PGA Tour?
For all intents and purposes, Woods can't lose his PGA Tour card. He is exempt for life by virtue of his 20-plus PGA Tour wins (79 in all) and being a member of the tour for at least 15 years.
In a worst-case scenario, he would simply drop down from his current exemption status (Category 2 for winners of the Players Championship in the past five years; he won at TPC Sawgrass in 2013) to Lifetime Member status (Category 18, according to the 2016-17 PGA Tour handbook).
For the 2016-17 wraparound season, only 86 players are ahead of Woods to get into a PGA Tour event. Those players actually include the likes of Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino, who haven't played on the PGA Tour in years.
There are some events, though, that Woods can't play in because his world ranking is so low (outside the top 500). For example, the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in late March takes the top 64 in the world rankings, so Tiger won't qualify for that event. Nor will he be able to compete in the WGC-Mexico in a few weeks or the WGC-Bridgestone this summer (at a course, Firestone Country Club, that he's won at eight times). And not the WGC-HSBC Champions in China later this year, either.
Woods might also need a sponsor's exemption to get into some invitational tournaments, but what sponsor wouldn't jump at the chance to do that if Tiger wanted to tee it up at an event?
So even though Woods is a lifetime PGA Tour member, he won't be able to tee it up at any event he wants. But it's pretty close.
Retirement talk
Technically, according to the PGA Tour, a player has no paperwork to file in order to officially retire. As the saying goes -- golfers don't retire, they just fade away.
Unless it is determined that Woods absolutely cannot play -- or if he tires of trying to play -- a retirement scenario is highly unlikely. Expect him to try to prolong his career for at least the immediate future. He just signed contracts with Bridgestone to use their golf balls and TaylorMade to play their clubs. Plus, Woods' foundation counts on him being in the public eye, and so does his golf-course design business.
All of those business interests need him to ease into retirement, not just announce it outright.