It’s almost unbelievable that Tiger Woods is playing golf publicly again less than 10 months after he totaled his car and shattered his right leg in a devastating accident that we still know very little about.
Just a few months ago, conversation centered on the hope that Tiger would walk normally again. But play golf? That was a distant dream, and hardly important. Tiger was alive. Tiger would continue to recover. Perhaps someday he would be able to play golf with his son Charlie, now 12. That sounded wonderful, but very much in the future.
It turns out that moment wasn’t far away at all, but rather right around the corner. Tiger is playing golf again at the PNC Championship in Orlando this weekend, a fun, “hit and giggle” get-together pairing professionals with family members for a 36-hole “competition” that means nothing — until Tiger announced he was coming to tee it up with Charlie.
Now it means everything.
Those of us who have covered Tiger, almost 46, for the length of his professional career learned long ago to never count him out of anything. But when you saw the photos of his wrecked vehicle lying on its side in the brush far off the road on that late February day in Southern California, and when you heard that he had to be rescued by the jaws of life, and when you found out that he suffered “comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula” in his right leg, you had to wonder: Could Tiger really come back from this?
We begin to find out this weekend. This is by no means the full comeback itself; this is just a start. It’s a light-hearted family outing in which Tiger can use a golf cart so he doesn’t have to walk the course, pick up his ball if he hits a bad shot and enjoy being back on a golf course with Charlie and their playing partners. The U.S. Open this is not.
But if he is ever able to compete in a major tournament again, he will look back on this weekend as the moment he found out it was possible. Tiger talked last month about returning to play in the occasional tournament, but never again playing full time on tour. To compete in any tournaments, he will need to regain the stamina and ability to walk 72 holes, which is not an insignificant challenge.
There’s more than a hint of irony in the news that Tiger is likely to use a golf cart this weekend. When Casey Martin sued the PGA Tour 20 years ago for the right to use a cart during competition due to a circulation disorder in his right leg, the tour argued in court that walking was a crucial aspect of the game. Even though Martin and Woods were teammates at Stanford, Tiger deserted his old friend, siding with the tour.
So now he’s going to use a cart?
“I’m gonna give him crap,” Martin playfully told Sports Illustrated. “I’m going to text him: ‘Hey, I’m pumped you’re playing, but I want some kickbacks if you take a cart.’”
As Tiger goes public in a big way this weekend, he remains strangely silent in another. When he was asked about his accident in a press conference last month, he replied, “All those answers have been answered in the investigation, so you can read about all that there in the police report.”
That is untrue and Tiger knows it. All the questions—and the answers—have not been answered. While the Los Angeles County sheriff said that Woods showed no signs of impairment, we’ll have to take his word for it because no field sobriety test was ever administered, which is astounding considering that Woods was quoted in the police report as not remembering the crash and thinking he “was currently in the state of Florida.”
It was Woods’ third driving incident since 2009, when he was cited for careless driving after infamously crashing into a fire hydrant and tree in front of his home in Florida. A witness said Woods was unconscious at the scene, according to the police report. The accident triggered a stunning personal scandal that ended with Woods losing major endorsements and his marriage.
In 2017, police found Woods asleep at the wheel in Florida and arrested him for driving under the influence. Tests revealed he had five drugs in his system. Woods soon checked himself into a clinic to get help for his use of pain and sleep medications.
Then came February 23, 2021 and his terrifying accident, followed by weeks of lying in bed, longing to be outside in the sunshine, feeling the grass under his feet.
Two hundred ninety eight days later, he’s there.
When it comes to Tiger Woods' return to the PGA Tour, let’s just slow down, folks
Sports fans tend to be an incredibly impatient group.
If your team won a title two years ago, why didn’t they win one last year? If your team settled for a field goal, the fans insist they should have gone for the touchdown. Rookies have to start in week one of their professional careers or they are busts. Why build for the future when you can win now, now, now?
So it has been with the latest in a series of comebacks for Tiger Woods, the king of the comeback in golf. After a horrific automobile crash that could have taken his life last February, Woods has once again fought his way back from physical adversity to tee off in a PGA Tour event. OK, it’s an unofficial event, a Silly Season tournament where who wins and who loses doesn’t mean much at all. But the PNC Championship this weekend is a chance to see Woods hitting golf balls, and that alone is thrilling considering it was possible that might never happen again.
But that won’t stop people from wanting Woods to win a major championship this year. They will want him to play a relatively full schedule. Get that one win to pass Sam Snead on the all-time wins list, some fans will cry. Get closer to Jack Nicklaus on the all-time major titles ladder, some will demand.
Let’s slow down, folks.
PNC: Tiger Woods, Charlie gallery | PNC photo gallery | How to watch
Yes, Tiger Woods is playing golf this week with his son and other professionals and their family members. He’s even playing well. But don’t mistake this for Woods playing PGA Tour-caliber golf. Woods is tantalizing fans with his game, but look closer and you know this is not a guy getting ready to play in the Farmers Insurance Open in February.
Can he even walk 18 holes? Remember, this is not a disability that Woods has, like Casey Martin had when he used a cart on the Tour. This is classified as an injury. So Woods can use a cart in the unofficial event this week but will walk when he comes back to the Tour. Not just 18 holes, mind you, but 72 holes on golf courses with hills and swales and bumps that will create strange sidehill and downhill lies. When will Woods be able to handle all of that?
Too many questions to answer
And how have the injuries to his leg impacted his golf swing? Is the leg strong enough to take the stress and torque that Woods has always created in his swing? Maybe that will come down the road, but it certainly isn’t there now in terms of playing four days in a PGA Tour event.
In other words, there are still too many unknowns to make Woods the betting favorite at the Masters. Maybe Las Vegas should be taking bets on whether Woods even plays in the Masters. You might want to bet against that.
No one on the PGA Tour today knows more about what it takes to come back from physical ailments than Woods. From the knee surgeries to the back surgeries that seemed to end his career at one point, Woods has followed a strict path of rehabilitation and hard work to not only play again but win again. Maybe there is another comeback in Woods. Maybe there isn’t.
Woods will be back in some way, shape or form. That will be terrific for golf, since he is the best golfer of a couple of generations now and many will steadfastly argue that he is the greatest golfer of all time. It is wonderful to see him on a golf course again, smiling, laughing and admiring the swing of his 12-year-old son Charlie in the PNC Championship.
But patience is a virtue for Woods now as he battles back from the accident. Hopefully, golf fans will find the patience to let Woods return to competition in his own time.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer, he can be reached at [email protected] or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_Bohannan.
Source: Golfweek https://ift.tt/2V95qPJ