Woods will tee it up next week at the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, playing for the first time since the Masters in April, where he withdrew after the third round. Shortly after the WD, Woods underwent ankle surgery to address post-traumatic arthritis.
Since then and especially in recent weeks, Woods has been making more public appearances, whether at his course in Mexico for the PGA Tour event or caddying for son Charlie at different events. And next week, he’s back at his tournament.
What should you expect from Big Cat? Here’s how he has done in his return to competition after six or more months away.
“My ankle is fine. Where they fused my ankle, I have absolutely zero issue whatsoever,” Woods told The Associated Press. “That pain is completely gone. It’s the other areas that have been compensated for.”
“But all the surrounding areas is where I had all my problems and I still do. So you fix one, others have to become more hypermobile to get around it, and it can lead to some issues.”
There was an ineffable sadness in watching Woods limp around the golf course he bestrode like a colossus in 1997.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Even the most pyrotechnic of sporting careers is more apt to end with a damp squib than with a glittering display of brilliance. Sculpted bodies eventually cease cooperating, seemingly inconsequential injuries don’t heal, and luminous skills grow dull. Ted Williams was a rarity in many respects, but never moreso than when he homered in his final at-bat. Fortunate legends might enjoy a last teasing fly-ball, but most conclude matters with a weak grounder years after they ought to have headed for the showers.
The belief that one can clear the fences one more time usually endures well beyond the likelihood of actually doing so. This is particularly true in golf, a sport that permits athletes to remain competitively relevant much longer than any other endeavor in which equipment isn’t bearing the brunt of the labor.
Arnold Palmer’s swan song appearance on the PGA Tour came more than a half-century after his debut, and 11 years after he last made a cut. Jack Nicklaus saw weekend action in the year before he finally retired, 46 years after making his first cut on Tour. But both men went through the stages of grief familiar to icons well-stricken in years: first, insist you’ll quit when you can no longer win; second, say you’ll go when you’re just taking up a spot in the field; third, lower the bar to the final notch just above embarrassing yourself. Eventually, they all move reluctantly toward the door marked ‘Exit.’
So where on that continuum is Tiger Woods?
He’s certainly well shy of embarrassing himself, and like Arnold in his latter years has earned the right to do so if he chooses (but he won’t). Nor can he be accused of selfishly taking someone else’s place in the field, since he’s earned the berth he occupies. On paper, at 47 he’s still of an age where opportunities to win are fewer but not finished. But in practice, he’s so banged up that winning or even contending has never seemed more distant in the rearview.
There was an ineffable sadness in watching Woods limp around the golf course he bestrode like a colossus in 1997, when he won the Masters by a dozen strokes. There’s an understandable desire to focus on his swing mechanics, to find positive signs that the weaponry is intact. Now and again it is, but his is an artillery gun borne on a rickety wagon, too unpredictable and unstable to be relied upon in the battle.
Tiger Woods reacts after putting on the 18th green during the second round of The Masters golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Network
The challenges he has overcome and his reputation for sheer bloody-mindedness encourages fans to think there’s another round in the chamber, but what we saw at the 87th Masters offers little hope. His game wasn’t sharp — and won’t ever be sharp because his body can’t endure the practice regimen Tour-ready golf requires — and the body is increasingly disloyal to the heart.
So why does he hang on when the band is striking up a tune that grows louder by the day?
A saccharine narrative has Woods sacrificing himself for us, the fans, to continue providing thrills at the expense of his own well-being. It’s a mawkish theory of martyrdom that stretches credulity. He didn’t play for the pleasure of fans and doesn’t continue at their pleasure either. He’s slogging onward because he knows he’s been cheated.
It’s an audacious claim for someone with 15 victories in major championships and 82 on the PGA Tour, but Woods has been shortchanged in longevity. Palmer and Nicklaus enjoyed ample returns over 50-plus years, whereas Woods has been out here barely half that and seems perilously close to the end. There are myriad reasons of course — lengthy injury layoffs, some owing to wear and tear, others to personal misadventure. That’s just what was lost in daylight. A bout with chipping yips and a couple of swing changes that seemed motivated more by boredom than necessity surely cost him numerous titles too.
The hope that there might be another title in him is based more in sentimentality than common sense. His last three appearances in majors have yielded one missed cut and two withdrawals after making the cut — in each case because his body couldn’t cash the check his heart was writing. That account is all but depleted.
The burden of brilliance is that Woods is destined now to be measured against the athlete he was, particularly when he pitches up at venues he once imperiously dismantled. Like at Augusta National, and perhaps again at Hoylake for the Open Championship this summer. Such weeks are cause for remembering how good it all was, sure, but also are sobering reminders of how completely he has eroded before us — the body, the game, the mystique, but thankfully too the aloofness. Woods has never been more relatable, but he isn’t playing for those who relate to him.
No permission to stand down need be granted. Woods is battling because he thinks he can still add to a legacy that is exquisite but incomplete. Only when he admits that he can no longer win will the passages of grief and, finally, acceptance begin. For us as much as for him.
Mobility can be a great place to start in your training.
As most of the country is beginning to defrost after a long winter, your body may not be used to playing long rounds of golf or even practicing.
In preparation to swinging a club in the cold weather, many golfers fail to properly warm-up for a range session or their round and that can be a recipe for injury.
Common injuries among golfers affect the back, knees, wrists, shoulders and more. The back is not designed to rotate for a golf swing, so mobility can be a great place to start in your training.
Members of the NYU Langone Health Sports Performance Center team spoke to Golfweek’s fitness guru Averee Dovsek and gave some helpful tips on preventing injuries for golfers.
“It was a tough decision just because I want to play. I like playing, I like competing, but unfortunately, I can hit the golf ball and hit whatever shot you want, I just can’t walk,” he explained during a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday. “I’ve had a few setbacks during the year that I still was able to somehow play through, but this one I just can’t. Only time can heal this one and stay off my feet and get a lot of treatment done.”
The more Woods ramped up his practice ahead of the tournament, the pain in his foot worsened.
“The worst thing you can do is walk, and I was walking more and more and more, trying to get my legs ready for this event, and I just kept making it worse,” Woods said. “So had to shut it down and unfortunately, be the host of the event and Ranger Rick out here.”
During his remarks, Woods noted that he has undergone two more surgical procedures this year, but when pressed for more basic information such as what the surgeries were for and when they happened, he demurred and only would confirm that they happened this year. (Woods did confirm that he was under the weather during the British Open in July, but that he never tested positive for COVID-19.) He also confirmed that the plantar fasciitis is related to the other injuries to his foot that he suffered in a one-car accident in February 2021.
Woods said he will require a month or two of rest to allow his foot to heal properly.
“It was the ramping up process that did it,” he said. “It’s a balancing act, right? How hard do you push it to make progress while not pushing it too hard to go off the edge and you set yourself back two, three days, and that’s been the balancing act the whole year. And trying to do that, get ready for this event, I did a lot of beach walks trying to simulate the sand out here and my foot just did not like that very much.”
Tiger Woods tips his hat to the crowd after teeing off on the 18th hole during the second round of the 150th Open Championship golf tournament at St. Andrews Old Course. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Woods competed in three majors this season – the Masters, where he finished T-47, the PGA Championship, where he withdrew after the third round, and the British Open, where he missed the cut – and he said he exceeded his own expectations, which were to simply play in the British at St. Andrews in Scotland, “the Home of Golf,” potentially for the last time. Despite the pain in his foot, Woods remains confident that he can play in The Match, a 12-hole exhibition scheduled for Dec. 10 pitting Woods and Rory McIlroy against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, as well as the PNC Championship, a two-person team event with son Charlie.
“This will be a tough week. The Father-Son will be a very easy week, Charlie will just hit all the shots and I’ll just get the putts out of the hole, so pretty easy there,” Woods said. “But other than that, in ‘The Match’ we’re playing in, we’re flying in carts.”
Woods reiterated his stance that he won’t request to use a cart at a sanctioned PGA Tour event, noting that the PNC Championship, where he’s used a cart in the past, is sanctioned by the rules of the PGA Tour Champions.
As for his future plans, Woods made it clear that his schedule in 2023 will be — at best — limited once again.
“The goal is to play just the major championships and maybe one or two more. That’s it. I mean, that’s — physically that’s all I can do,” he said. “I don’t have much left in this leg, so gear up for the biggest ones and hopefully, you know, lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win and hopefully I remember how to do that.”
Talk among athletes and the orthopedic community is that there is more plantar fasciitis than there used to be.
When baseball star Albert Pujols was suffering from plantar fasciitis during the 2013 season while still with the Los Angeles Angels, the strapping first baseman said he considered a severe morning routine change.
“You almost want to pee in your bed rather than go to the bathroom,” Pujols told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s really painful in the morning.”
And while there is a lack of data showing this is more common in professional sports, there is a lot of talk among athletes and the orthopedic medical community that there is more plantar fasciitis than there used to be among both pro athletes and so-called weekend warriors over the last decade.
Robert Klapper, the orthopedic consultant to the TV show “ER,” and the co-host of ESPN Radio’s Weekend Warriors, had a couple of theories about what he told USA TODAY Sports in 2013 was an “explosion of overuse injuries like plantar fasciitis.”
Klapper said he thinks that sports specialization at a young age is leading to a lack of natural cross-training and to a greater number of injuries caused by repetitive movements.
In earlier generations, a young three-sport star — say, football, basketball, baseball — was common. Now, young athletes who stand out in a sport tend to play it year-round on all-star or travel teams. And there is a lot more time spent inside on computers or watching TV. Now, the two-sport star — say, basketball and video games — is more common.
“Cross-training is so valuable, and it used to come quite naturally,” Klapper said. “We’ve lost that.”
Here’s a quick look at the condition, as well as some causes, prevention tips and treatment ideas.
Golf fans saw the worst and the best of Tiger Woods the last time the 15-time major champion teed it up in an official professional tournament (not counting the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie).
Woods, a five-timer winner at Augusta National Golf Club, entered the final round 11 shots behind eventual champion Dustin Johnson and proceeded to do the unthinkable on multiple occasions.
A lot has happened over the last year both on and off the golf course for Woods, and his future sure looks a lot different today than it did on that roller coaster Sunday.
Tiger Woods was driving at an excessive speed before he crashed his vehicle in February, but authorities don’t know if he was conscious when he lost control of his vehicle that day, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday.
Sheriff Alex Vilanueva said Woods was traveling more than 82-mph in a 45-mph zone and instead of braking was actually accelerating prior to impact, according to data received from the black box recorder of Woods’ loaner Genesis SUV.
Woods will not be cited for a traffic violation, said Villanueva, who received permission from Woods to release the crash investigation details.
The famed golfer broke bones in his right leg during the crash Feb. 23 in Rolling Hills Estates, south of downtown Los Angeles. He underwent surgery and announced on Twitter March 16 that he was recovering from home after being released from the hospital.
One of those experts is Jonathan Cherney, a former police detective who walked the scene after the crash. He said it was “like a classic case of falling asleep behind the wheel, because the road curves and his vehicle goes straight.”
Instead of staying with his downhill lane as it curved right, Woods kept going left, struck the eight-inch curb of the median, hit a large wooden sign, kept going through the median, then went into opposing traffic lanes and off the road before going through extensive vegetation, hitting a tree and rolling over.
His vehicle traveled an estimated 400 feet after leaving his lane and hitting the median. If he had been conscious, the theory is that there would be some evidence of braking or steering, the experts said. There were no skid marks on the road, Villanueva said. Even with anti-lock brakes, experts said there could be faint skid marks. After striking a curb and hitting a large sign in the median, the theory is that a driver would try to correct the error and get out of the emergency by driving back onto the road and braking.
Woods, 45, instead kept going and going in a fairly straight direction with no signs of slowing down. He then told first responders that he didn’t remember how the accident occurred and didn’t remember driving.
The sheriff’s department also did not seek blood evidence from him, saying he appeared lucid at the scene of the crash and that there were no signs of impairment to warrant a blood examination. Villanueva first stressed that the crash was “purely an accident” while his department also emphasized that the road Woods had been driving on was known for accidents and speeding.
After obtaining the data, Villanueva offered some clarification on March 17 when he said there were no “obvious” signs of impairment. He then went on to talk about “lessons learned” and said, “I can tell you this: We do need more drug-recognition experts within the department.”
Drug-recognition experts (DRE) are law enforcement officers trained to recognize signs of impairment that are not obvious. After a crash, they go through a 12-step process to evaluate a driver for impairment and can request a blood examination. No DRE was used in the Woods case because Villanueva said then that it wasn’t necessary.
“We can’t just assume that somebody’s history makes them guilty,” sheriff’s deputy John Schloegl told USA TODAY Sports March 2.
In 2009, Woods was cited for careless driving after crashing into a tree and fire hydrant outside his mansion in Florida. He was found unconscious at the scene and a witness then said Woods had been prescribed the sleep medication Ambien and the painkiller Vicodin, according to a police report.
In 2017, he was found asleep at the wheel in Florida and arrested for drunken driving. A toxicology report later showed he had Ambien, Vicodin, THC and other medications in his system. He checked into a clinic after that to get help dealing with medication for pain and a sleep disorder. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
Tiger Woods’ broken leg and ankle aren’t the first injuries the 15-time major winner faced. Most of his pain has been in his back and legs.
Tiger Woods is no stranger to injuries – he won the 2008 U.S. Open with a twice-fractured left leg, for example. His back problems have derailed his career for the better part of a decade, and in 2017 Woods was unsure if he would ever be able to play again. There have been surgeries on top of surgeries, mostly to his knees and back.
It’s entirely premature to speculate exactly how his severely broken leg and crushed ankle after Tuesday’s car crash in California will impact any hopes that he returns to golf, but it is worth looking back at the obstacles Woods has overcome.
Also worth noting, Woods plays his cards very close to the vest, and at times he has been coy about providing private information on injuries or medical procedures. These injuries listed below – compiled from past Golfweek reporting and media reports such as this one on PGA.com – are just those that are known.
