Tiger Woods, the golfer who revolutionized this sport and dominated the world rankings at will for many years, has a new opportunity this Thursday, one more. Before, Tigre fought to break records, to show his talent. Now, at 48 years old, the fight is against pain.
The years do not go in vain. And even less so for Woods, who in recent times has had to fight various physical problems, which worsened after the serious traffic accident he suffered almost three years ago. Tiger is going little by little: this Thursday he will begin playing the Genesis Invitational, his first official tournament in 11 months.
In December, when he participated in the Hero World Challenge, a competition that is not considered official by the PGA Tour, Tiger revealed his plan: play one tournament a month thinking about returning to the course of his best memories, the Augusta National Golf Club, the home of the Masters.
“I think it is a realistic goal. It would have to start maybe at Genesis and something in March around The Players…”, he explained then. “Now I need to prepare for all that with patience. I think this week is a big step in that direction,” he added.
Winner of 82 tournaments on the PGA Tour and 15 majors, only surpassed in this last item by the historic 'Golden Bear' Jack Nicklaus, Tiger knows that it will be increasingly difficult to be in the fight for big things. Although the same was said about him in 2019, when he surprised the world by winning the Masters at age 44.
“I love competing and playing. I miss being here with the boys. What motivates me is that I love to compete. There will come a time, I haven't fully understood it yet, when I won't be able to win again, and when it comes I'll be gone,” she said.
Tiger Woods works to overcome pain
Before his appearance at the Hero World Challenge in December, the last image that Tiger left the golf world was his painful participation, literally, in the 2023 Masters. He endured as best he could, overcame the cut and then the pain and difficult weather he was forced to withdraw from the tournament before the final round.
Woods was suffering from pain in one leg and his cadi, Joe LaCava, with whom he worked from 2012 until last year, already warned that if the weather did not help him, participation in the Masters could be extremely difficult.
“Bad weather is announced for the tournament and it is not the best news. If it rains and there are suspensions, Tiger is not physically able to face, for example, 27 holes in one day,” said LaCava, who will not accompany him on his comeback. He went to work with Patrick Cantlay.
It was the worst case scenario. The tournament suffered several delays and, as things stood, Tiger had to play 29 holes on Sunday, 11 in the third round and the last 18. Already that Saturday, television cameras showed a player who was limping, walking with difficulty and not hiding his suffering.
I am disappointed to have to WD this morning due to reaggravating my plantar fasciitis. Thank you to the fans and to @TheMasters who have shown me so much love and support. Good luck to the players today!
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 9, 2023
After the Masters, Tiger underwent surgery again. He underwent surgery to perform a “subtalar joint fusion.” This is located exactly below the ankle, between the talus bone and the heel bone. In this way he sought to overcome the pain that became evident during his time in Augusta last year. “The surgery was a success,” he posted on his social networks.
That surgery was the 11th he had to undergo since 2009, when treatments began to overcome back pain, and the seventh since his traffic accident.
It should be remembered that on February 23, 2021, the golfer was aboard a Genesis GV80 truck, around 7 in the morning. Tiger, who was speeding (he was reportedly going more than 140 kilometers per hour), continued straight around a curve on the border between Rolling Hills Estates and Ranchos Palos Verdes. The investigation after the accident revealed that the golfer was not even able to hit the brakes.
This is how the car Tiger Woods was in looked like after the accident.
The accident was dramatic and the truck ended up overturned. A call to the emergency line allowed firefighters to come and help him. One of them, Code Gomoll, 23 years old and who was just completing his first rescue task, had to use an ax to cut the windshield and help extract Woods.
The consequences of the rollover were significant: Tiger suffered several open fractures in his tibia and fibula and others in his foot and ankle. They had to undergo six surgeries and he spent more than a month in the hospital.
The recovery took more than a year and on April 7, 2022, Tiger was on the tee at the Masters. He played all four days and, although he finished with 13 over par, very far from the champion, Scottie Scheffler, his performance falls, perfectly, into the category of miracle.
“It was an incredible feeling. I didn't play my best golf, but just having the support of the patrons is incredible, I can't describe what I feel. A month ago I didn't know if I could do this. It was a positive week, I have to improve, but I'm ready,” he declared that Sunday when Scheffler put on the green jacket.
However, the pain has not allowed Tiger to compete frequently on the PGA Tour. In fact, after the 2022 Masters, he had only played four official tournaments until this return: He played two more majors in 2022, but did not finish any of them, as he did not make the cut at the British Open in Saint Andrews and did not finish the PGA Championship that year. And in this same Genesis Invitational to which he now returns, last year he played all four rounds. Then came the tour of Augusta, the pain and the new surgery that forced him to stop and abandon competitive golf until now.
But Tiger always had it in mind to compete again. Little by little, he added hitting balls again to the physiotherapy sessions. And, in December, when he competed in the Hero World Challenge, it was revealed that the Tiger did gym routines that started very early, at 4 in the morning.
Two weeks after that competition, Tiger played another tournament, the PNC Championship, a couples competition in which he appeared with his son, Charlie, 14 years old, who also dazzled with his talent: he was already making shots of more than 300 yards. .
“People don't realize that I was still lifting weights and doing a lot of other things besides the resistance part. And he hit golf balls a lot, trying to prepare Charlie for the event,” Woods said, quoted by Men's Health.
That was a family plan, since his daughter Sam acted as cadi. “Having my two sons next to me like this and participating, playing and being a part of the game of golf, it couldn't have been more special for me,” Woods said.
For Tiger, it's time for change
Tiger, despite his inactivity, remains an attractive figure. He rejected a multimillion-dollar offer, at the end of 2021, to join LIV Golf, the circuit financed by funds from Saudi Arabia.
“That number was talked about (an offer between 700 and 800 million). Tiger changes the balance, and obviously one has to aim for the best of the best. “They contacted Tiger before I became CEO,” Greg Norman, head of the Arab circuit, declared at the time.
Woods had already set his position during the 2022 British Open. “I cannot support the players who decide to play in the LIV. They have turned their backs on the organization that has brought them to where they are. Some players haven’t even competed on the PGA Tour,” he said. “Some of these players may never get to play a major, play at St. Andrews or walk the streets of Augusta. That, to me, is incomprehensible,” he added.
Additionally, his return coincides with the end of a 27-year business relationship with Nike. El Tigre launched its own brand. The name has a lot to do with one of the constants of his career: it is called Sun Day Red, to remember that always, on the last day of the tournaments, when he dressed in glory, he did so in red.
“It's the right time in my life. I'm not a child anymore. Life changes, I have children. This is an important transition as part of my life. I want to have something I can be proud of and a brand I can be proud of in the future,” she stated this week at the brand launch.
This is not the same Tiger that took over the world. It is not the same golf either, since the figures are distributed. Woods is a mystery. At Augusta he demonstrated a year ago that talent is not lost and that only pain and injuries can stop it. Today he says he doesn't have them and that means the illusion is not lost.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Deputy Editor
@josasc
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