Tiger's Post-Surgery Struggles
Golf star Tiger Woods attempts to make his return to golf after back surgery, but faces unprecedented obstacles.
October 2015
Jake Butler '17
Fourteen-time major winner, Tiger Woods, attempted to make his return to golf after having back surgery last year. His season, back after the surgery, included many career worsts for Tiger. He carded his two worst rounds on the PGA tour and went from being the best ranked golfer in the world in 2013, to the 311th ranked golfer. His season had many ups and downs and concluded with, yet again, another back surgery.
Woods started his 2015 season at the HERO World Challenge. Through the course of the week, he chunked and bladed many chips around the green, which Tiger is not used to doing. On Saturday, he was visibly ill and talked to the media after the round with a whisper which sounded like he lost his voice. He finished tied for last and was 26 strokes behind the winner, Jordan Spieth. After not competing for another two months, Tiger entered the Waste Management Phoenix Open where he shot an 82 which was his worst score on the PGA tour. This resulted in a missed cut. To add to Tiger’s misfortunes, the following week, he withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open because of injury.
In the four majors of the year, Tiger didn’t shine as bright as he has in the past with 14 major victories. His best major finish of the year came from the Masters where he tied for 17th. While it seemed like Woods may be making a comeback after he shot a 68 on Saturday, it ended with him hitting a shot on a hidden root which caused his bone in his wrist to pop out. It didn’t help that he missed the cut in the next three majors (which is the first time in his career he missed three consecutive cuts in majors).
After a month off from the Masters, Tiger made the cut at the Players but still tied for 69th. He then took another month to figure things out and came back at the Memorial Tournament to shoot his worst round of his career. He shot an 85.
Woods entered the last regular season event of the year, the Wyndham Championship, in hopes of making it to the FedEx Cup playoffs. Only a win or runner-up finish would give him enough points to qualify, and he almost pulled it off. He entered Sunday, the last round of the tournament, two shots off the lead but was derailed by a bladed chip over the green leading to a costly triple-bogey. Unfortunately, Tiger failed to make the playoffs when he tied for 10th, his best result of the season.
After Tiger’s weakest season has come to an end, he announced that he had his second back surgery and will not play again until early 2016. Tiger stated, “This is certainly disappointing, but I’m a fighter, I’ve been told I can make a full recovery, and I have no doubt that I will”. With a year full of injuries and bad rounds, Tiger is still hopeful and is going to try as hard as he could as long as he is able to compete. Only four victories behind the major victory record, held by Jack Nicklaus, there are still hopes that Tiger will compete again to challenge this record.