Green knows the pain Woods is feeling, physically and mentally
Ken Green has heard from several of his friends over the past few days. They wanted to check in to see how he was doing and what he thought about the news.
The “news” has captivated the nation this week: Tiger Woods was in a severe, one-car accident on Tuesday. He suffered significant orthopedic injuries to his lower right extremities. That included comminuted open fractures to his tibia and fibula bones. A rod has been inserted to stabilize those bones.
“Our injuries are clearly very similar,” said Green, a Danbury native and a former PGA Tour golfer. “Fortunately nobody died (in Woods’ accident), but it is eerily similar.”
Green knows the road the recovery Woods will be facing. In June of 2009, the RV Green was traveling in suffered a tire blowout in Mississippi. The RV went down an embankment and crashed into a tree. His brother, William, girlfriend Jeannie Hodgin and dog Nip all died in the crash.
According to reports in the News-Times, Green “suffered an open distal tibia fracture of his right leg and a suborbital fracture of his left eye.”
“All I remember is the tire going bang and waking up three days later. The head damage I got was pretty bad,” said Green, who resides in West Palm Beach, Fla. when not in Connecticut.
Green will always have a constant reminder of the accident every time he looks at his pros
thetic right leg. He lives with pain all day long. It was Green’s decision, after initial hopes to save the limb, to have the lower portion of his right leg amputated.
“People forget how fast your life can change,” Green said. “I’m at 25 surgeries since the accident and I had my leg taken off.”
Green is like everyone else: he only knows the details on Woods that have come out. But what he does know is Woods has a long road ahead to recovery.
“He is 5 years younger than I was (at the time of the accident). Today’s 45 is a lot younger than my 45,” Green said. “The hardest part is the pain. He will have to endure a lot of pain. There are going to be sleepless nights of pain. He may want to be 90 percent (recovered). If he finds out he only can get to 70 percent, what does it do to him mentally? That could be a tough one. Someone who wants to be the best at what he does, it’s going to be a hard pill to
swallow when you realize you’re not you anymore.”
Green, 62, only recalled having one brief conversation with Woods. That came at the 2003 Buick Invitational.
“He knew I had a sister caddying for me and that I led the Masters (after the first round in 1986),” Green recalled. “I was surprised he even knew who I was.”
Green may not know Woods personally, but he believes Woods will do what he can to come back to play golf at some point.
“If he wants to accomplish something, he will. If he wants to beat this, he will,” Green said. “I looked at it as a challenge. This was like a one-on-one battle that I refused to lose. That’s what kept me going or I would have been gone. If I could ever say anything to him, it would be to turn it into a game and do what you need to in order to win the game.”
Green only plays competitive golf sparingly these days. He said he plans to enter the Senior PGA Championship in May. He is eligible for having played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
He will come back to Connecticut after that, compete in some state senior events, maybe the Connecticut Open — and also keep an eye with the
rest of the world on Woods’ progress.