Tiger considering life without golf

Superstar admits playing days may done

The answers to questions about his frame of mind and his health were, for the most part, upbeat and positive. But then Tiger Woods was asked if he could imagine a scenario in which he never played competitively again and his answer was blunt and sobering.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said in response to the last question at a news conference for this weekend’s Presidents Cup. “I don’t know what my future holds for me. As I’ve told you guys, I’m hitting 60-yard shots.”

Woods is returning to the golf course for the first time since the Dubai Desert Classic in February. He withdrew from that tournament after the first round, citing back spasms, and had fusion surgery on his back in April. The following month he pronounced himself pain free, but in May he was arrested on a DUI charge. Citing a bad reaction to a mix of medications, he headed to rehab.

Serving as an assistant captain for the Presidents Cup at Liberty National in New Jersey, he is limited to riding in a cart and has not played a full schedule since 2015. Although he may look fit, a series of back surgeries has taken a toll and it’s fair to wonder if he’ll ever be the Woods who has won 14 majors.

“There were times when ... I didn’t know if I was going to be able to be here because I couldn’t ride in a cart,” Woods said Wednesday. “The bouncing just hurt too much. Driving a car still hurts. So that’s all gone now, which is fantastic. And yeah, there were some intrepid times, not just for this golf tournament, but for life going forward.”

Woods wrote in a blog post on his website last week that his “six-month back Xrays (are) coming up. Once my surgeon takes a look, he’ll give me the parameters of what I can do moving forward.”

For now, he is working out six days a week, “alternating between the treadmill, bike riding, swimming and lifting twice a day. My muscle tone is coming back, but I’m not in golf shape yet. That’s going to take time.” He has not taken a full swing, but chips and putts every day.

“Playing-wise, I’m not looking ahead yet because I don’t know what kind of swing I’m going to use,” he wrote. “I just don’t know what my body is going to allow me to do. Until I do, I’m going to listen to my doctors and continue to take it slowly.”

On Wednesday, he cracked that his 60-yard shots are going well. “I’m hitting it really straight,” he told reporters with a laugh. “It’s a joke. Smile, OK?”

Woods wrote about plenty of other topics in his post, including how he took his kids to watch the eclipse in Tennessee and his pal Rafael Nadal at the U.S. Open (“We text all the time.”). One thing that Woods did not bring up specifically was his May 29 arrest in Florida. Last month, he agreed to enter a firsttime DUI offender diversion program in a plea deal with prosecutors.

Nevertheless, Woods, who turns 42 at the end of the year, reiterates that he’s “very optimistic.

“Like I said, the pain’s gone, but I don’t know what my golfing body is going to be like, because I haven’t hit a golf shot yet,” he said Wednesday. “So that’s going to take time to figure that out and figure out what my capabilities are going forward and there’s no rush.”