Is He Quitting to Hole: Tiger is Still Not Out of Woods After Surgery

After suffering a career-ending talus fracture in a vehicle accident in 2021, Woods’ management team reported on social media Wednesday that he had had a subtalar fusion treatment to treat the resulting post-traumatic arthritis.

After months of struggling with foot problems, Tiger Woods ultimately decided to pull out of the Masters.
Just after a grueling Masters Tournament, Tiger Woods had to have another surgery, and it is still unknown when he will be able to return to golf.

There was no estimated time for Woods to make a full recovery; all his staff announced was that he “looks forward to beginning his rehabilitation.”

Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent, told the Associated Press, “The first goal is to recover and lead a much more enjoyable day-to-day life.”
When a broken bone cannot be fixed or replaced, a surgeon may choose to fuse it with another bone.

This suggests that Woods’ foot included a bone in such poor condition that it required fusion with another skeleton.

This explains Woods’s poor performance at Augusta National earlier this month, but it’s hardly great news for a golfer whose career hinges on a leg that was almost ruined in 2021.
After a delayed start due to bad weather, Woods barely missed the Masters’ cut.

On Sunday morning, with 29 holes remaining, he withdrew from the competition, ending his streak of consecutive Masters victories.
Since turning professional in 1997, he has never missed the cut when playing in the Masters.

In fact, he tied the record of 23 straight cuts by just missing the cut into the weekend. Before play was suspended on Saturday, Woods appeared to be in some discomfort throughout his first round.

Since last year’s Masters, Woods has only finished one tournament (February’s Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles), but he also missed last year’s PGA Championship because of injuries.

It is currently unknown when Woods will attempt to compete again following his most recent operation.

Many people thought Woods may attempt to play in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in New York next month. However, given his previous spate of ailments and the impending nature of this surgery, it seems highly unlikely.

Recovery time is predicted to be between 8-12 weeks, if not more, and the British Open, the year’s final major, is less than three months away.

Given that Woods has stated he does not wish to attempt to compete in more than the major championships each season and that this operation was done to assist his “day-to-day life,” it seems unlikely that he will hurry back to play at Royal Liverpool in July, even with a speedy recovery. It’s possible that his season is over.

Woods withdrew from the Masters due to plantar pain, where he would have made the record-tying 23rd cut.

His December withdrawal from the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas was similarly attributed to plantar fasciitis, which he stated was brought on by his excessive preparation for the tournament.

The reason Woods had to retire from the PGA Championship last year, according to what he told Jason Day, “was a screw went through the skin,” Day revealed at the Masters.

Woods’s back has been operated on five times before. His comeback to the field was made possible through spinal fusion surgery.

He tied Sam Snead’s record for most PGA Tour victories with 82 after taking home the Tour Championship in 2018, the Masters in 2019, and the Zozo Championship in Japan in the fall of 2019.

In a number of interviews, he has claimed that making shots is not the issue, but rather moving to the next one.

Woods has also stated that he will only play in the majors and a select few additional tournaments, including the 36-hole PNC Championship with his son where they may share a cart.

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