Tiger Woods completed one of sport’s greatest comebacks – can he do it again?

Experts expect American to struggle to return, but those close to him say it could make for one final challenge

Horror, relief, concern… Tiger Woods always has made the observers scramble across the emotions, but even by his standards, this week he has caused the nerves to experience a new level of freneticism.

When the world of golf awoke on the morning after the fright before, that sense of intense relief that the 45-year-old’s life was not in danger was, naturally, still present. But after the worst fears were allayed by the LA Sheriff ’s Department, attention inevitably turned to what is next for the sport’s icon.

Perhaps it is selfish for golf to thrust itself so quickly into the speculation game and perhaps it should leave the conjecture until Woods is back home in south Florida in the bosom of his family. Yet, because of the 15-time major winner’s importance to the fairways, and because of his history of launching implausible, if not supposedly impossible, revivals, the question cannot be ignored. Can he possibly do it again, can he once more raise himself from a wreckage and reclaim the major stage? “If anyone can, then it’s Tiger,” Bryson Dechambeau said. “After all, he’s done it before.”

Of course, it will be the scans and consultations that will ultimately decide if he is physically able to come back this time, just like he did spectacularly at the 2019 Masters after an 11-year hiatus. But as his four-by-four rolled over and over into a tree in a ravine, Woods hit the bottom of the mountain again. When he has conquered the shock and been presented with the full detail and the options, he must peer up and consider if he is up to scaling the summit once more.

The medical hurdles

Nick Cullen, consultant foot and ankle specialist at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust: “It’s a very serious injury of the lower leg. And it’s serious because the bone’s been broken in multiple levels and the bone has broken through the skin. It sounds as though the break has gone into the ankle, so it affects the joints of the ankle as well. And once you start having fractures and breaks of bones in the foot then there are lots of joints that can get affected.

“With a segmental break that’s broken through the skin on multiple levels, this would probably be classified as a limb-threatening injury. I don’t think you’d be talking about amputating this immediately, but that’s the potential. In order for him to make a full recovery to play golf again, he’d need to regain a nearnormal range of movement in his ankle and in his foot, and he would need his bones to heal up. Very often, after the breaks of the bones here, even if the bones heal up well, there’s quite a lot of damage to the muscles and the tissues.

“I would say that he has certainly a less than 50 per cent chance of coming back and being able to play professional golf again.

“When you have a rod that’s passed through the shin, you get up walking quite quickly because it stabilises the bone and you’re encouraged to walk. But, with the foot injuries, you’re often encouraged to keep off the foot. So, because of that, it’ll probably be six to 12 weeks before he’s able to put weight through the limb. Then with regards to full bone healing of the shin, the tibial bone, then you’d be looking at between six and 12 months.”

‘The bone’s been broken in multiple levels’

The coach’s view

Pete Cowen has known Woods since he first stormed on to the Tour 25

years ago. He said: “If anyone can adapt to an injury, it is Tiger and if there is anyone who can fashion a swing to what his body will allow it is Tiger.

“If it was the left ankle I would say no chance, as you have to move around that quite violently. But while the right leg can be a power source, you can actually play golf without loading the right leg. There are plenty of pros that stay left-sided and just use the right leg as a post. At his best, Tiger was a little more leftsided, but that was still a violent action back then and if this does restrict him, this would take a complete overhaul of his swing.

“He could figure it out, because no player understands his body better and no player understands the swing better. You know, it could be the final challenge. And Tiger likes a challenge.”

Has this happened before?

Woods has been known to study footage of Ben Hogan’s syrupy action in search of nuggets of insight. In convalescence, he might look back at Hogan’s life for inspiration of a different kind.

In 1949 aged 36, Hogan and wife Valerie were driving on Highway 80 near Van Horn, Texas, when a dense fog fell and an icy film covered the road. A Greyhound bus, trying to overtake a truck, ploughed head-on into Hogan’s Cadillac, with the great man diving across his wife instinctively seconds before impact, a reflex that saved him from being crushed. Valerie escaped with cuts and bruises, but Hogan was taken to hospital. Doctors diagnosed Hogan with a fractured left collarbone, a double fracture of his pelvis, a broken ankle and a chipped rib, and told him he would never play golf again.

Sixteen months later, Hogan defied those predictions with a 1950 US Open triumph dubbed the “Miracle at Merion”. In 1953, Hogan became the first player to win three majors in one year, taking his career tally to nine.

A settled support bubble

Woods’s life now has a different balance. The long days spent in solitude pounding ball after ball on the driving range are a thing of the past, with parenthood taking up much more time and his body unable to withstand that kind of punishment.

“I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids,” Woods said in 2015. “I have split custody so when I’m at home, I want to be with them, take them to a soccer game or to school or to activities. Whatever it is, I’m their dad.”

Daughter Sam is now 13 and son Charlie a year younger. Both were there to greet him behind Augusta’s 18th green after his 2019 Masters epic, which seemed to bring the Woods story full circle 22 years after he and father Earl hugged in the same spot. Also present was Erica Herman, Woods’s girlfriend of four years, which remains his longest relationship since his divorce.

Woods and Charlie finished seventh in last year’s PNC Father and Son Challenge, with the youngster’s rhythmic and technically correct swing looking a chip off the old block. Could there be another chapter to the Woods saga? It would be unwise to heap pressure on a child, but he has a capable mentor.

Will he want to come back?

With medical experts predicting it could take anywhere from nine months to two years for Woods to recover, this will plainly be as much a mental quandary for the golfer to solve as it will be a physical challenge.

It is all very well for his fellow players, his friends and even his agent to say that the 45-year-old will undoubtedly have the hunger for the fightback, but at this present time as he lies in that LA hospital bed, blessedly “awake and responsive”, even he will not know if he possesses the wherewithal. There are so many aspects from him to consider in the weeks and months ahead.

There must be a temptation to hang up his spikes purely because of where he is in life. Financially, he obviously has no need to fret – although never underestimate Team Tiger’s love of a buck – and after all the turmoil of the last decade, his private life seems more settled than ever.

One thing is certain: so much will be deeply unappealing to this most guarded of superstars. Goodness knows what will come out in the forthcoming weeks, but it must be noted that he has suffered with addiction to painkilling medication before and the prospect of the queries will hound his thoughts.

Woods, if and when he returns, would be interrogated in a media room and do not downplay how highly that scenario will figure in his calculations.

Woods was at the wheel of a car that tumbled over and over across the other side of the freeway. Not only was he lucky to survive, he was extremely fortunate that nobody else was injured or worse. He has questions to answer everywhere he looks. The simple route would be to walk away. It would be the most understandable and perhaps wisest course of action, as well.