Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is hitting the golf course again, only this time it’s as a spectator rather than a competitor.
After Buffalo’s season ended in disappointing with a divisional-round playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Allen opted to skip out on the Pro Bowl to instead compete in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament held the same weekend. On February 19, Allen was once again spotted on the links as he watched Tiger Woods in his PGA Tour comeback event.
Allen Turns Fan for Tiger’s Comeback
Allen was seen in attendance at the PGA’s Genesis Invitational, with the PGA Tour sharing a picture of the Bills quarterback with a caption that he was “Dialied in for Tiger.” This is not the first time that Allen has followed Tiger at a PGA event, as he and fellow quarterback Sam Darnold were spotted following Woods’ group as last year’s Masters.
The weekend’s PGA tournament marks a comeback for Woods, who Sky Sports noted was making his first non-major start on the PGA Tour since the Zozo Championship in October 2020.
Woods opened up before the start of the tournament, saying he felt healthy enough to compete after rehabbing through a series of injuries.
“I can hit golf balls, I can do all that stuff. I can chip and putt back home and I can do all that stuff. But I haven’t walked and played a lot, so that’s the challenge,” Woods said before the tournament, via Yahoo Sports. “The ebb and flow of adrenaline, I haven’t had adrenaline in my system for a while. So getting the numbers right, that’s taken a little bit of time.”
Though he was not near the leaderboard as play opened on Sunday, Woods overcame the odds to make the cut at the event.
Allen Taking it Easy in the Offseason
This is now the second time that Allen has taken part in a golf event in his native California since the Bills’ season came to an end. The Genesis Invitational takes place at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, just a few weeks after Allen competed in the Pro-Am event at Pebble Beach a little closer to his hometown near Fresno.
Allen has committed to some rest after playing the final half of the season with an elbow suffered in a Week 9 loss to the New York Jets. Though he didn’t miss any time due to the elbow ailment, Allen said the injury was a bother for several weeks and caused him to change come mechanics.
“There was a period obviously right after for a few weeks where it was pretty bothersome,” Allen said. “But again it didn’t affect me all that much. I just kind of felt like maybe I was trying to throw it a little differently mechanically, had to change a few things and got away a little bit from how I’m used to throwing the ball.”
Allen was able to avoid surgery for the elbow, with NFL Network insiders Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport reporting on February 13 that the Bills quarterback avoided the worst-case scenario.
“The extent of the injury, originally reported as a UCL sprain, was worse than most knew,” they reported. “But as long as Allen avoided reinjury, which he has to this point, doctors always believed he could avoid surgery and heal up during the offseason.”