Fears for Tiger after car-crash trauma: Woods facing another comeback fight
The vehicle of Tiger Woods lies on its side after being involved in a single-vehicle accident in Los Angeles yesterday. Woods was rushed to hospital for surgery after suffering ‘multiple leg injuries’.
TIGER WOODS might have appeared god-like for the first half of his legendary career, but it’s his very human struggle to play again and his role as a father that concerns most golf fans after he suffered multiple leg injuries in a car crash in California yesterday.
The 15-time Major winner (45) appeared on CBS during Sunday’s final round coverage of the Genesis Invitational he hosts in aid of his TGR Foundation looking puffy and tired as he recovered from a fifth back surgery, explaining he was taking no chances with his recuperation, given the state of his body.
“A lot of it is based on my surgeons, my doctors and therapists, making sure I do it correctly, because this is the only back I’ve got,” Woods said. “I don’t have much more wiggle room left.”
How much Woods’ health will be affected by his latest setback remains to be seen, but his accident must surely put in doubt his slim hopes, not only of equalling Jack Nicklaus’ haul of 18 Major championships, but also his very real chances of winning an 83rd PGA Tour title and relegating Sam Snead into second place as the most successful tour player of all time.
It was confirmed that Woods has a compound fracture and shattered ankle but non-life threatening injuries.
He is already regarded by many as the greatest to play the game, given his dominance in an ultra-competitive era.
But having fallen from grace in 2009 when a crash into a fire hydrant outside his Florida home led to a torrent of revelations of extramarital affairs, a sex addiction and problems with prescription drugs, he became an even more beloved figure for his human frailty rather than his athletic brilliance.
That hit home again in May 2017 when he was arrested for Driving Under the Influence in Florida after trying to treat his back pain and insomnia on his own with the help of doctors.
The toxicology report said he had five different drugs, including painkillers, sleeping pills and an ingredient active in marijuana, when he was handcuffed and taken away by police.
It was incident that many felt would herald the end of his glittering career, but Tiger beat the odds in incredible fashion, returning to winning ways in 2018 by leaving Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose in his wake by claiming the Tour Championship at East Lake.
Seven months later, he completed what many rate as one of the greatest sporting comebacks of all time when he won the Masters by one stroke from Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele at Augusta National and was hugged at the finish by his children, Sam and Charlie.
He had reinvented himself since his personal troubles, becoming a more open and available presence on the driving range for a new generation of stars from McIlroy to Justin Thomas, who was deeply affected by the news when he spoke at the WGC Workday Championship at The Concession in Florida last night. “I’m sick to my stomach,” said Thomas, who has become one of Woods’ closest friends on tour. “It hurts to see one of my closest friends get in an accident. Man, I just hope he’s all right. Just worry for his kids, you know. I’m sure they’re struggling.”
Images of the wreckage were shared on social media and showed a badly damaged SUV off the side of the road. Video shows tyre tracks crossing over a curbed median near where the vehicle came to rest.
His accident will bring back memories for many golf aficionados of the great Ben Hogan. During his prime years, from 1938 through to 1959, he won 63 professional golf tournaments but suffered a near-fatal car accident in Texas in 1949 when he and his wife Valerie survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus.
Protect
Hogan, who was 36 at the time, threw himself across his wife to protect her but suffered multiple injuries, including a double-fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone, a left ankle fracture, a chipped rib, and near-fatal blood clots.
Doctors said he might never walk again, but he returned to take his Major haul from three to nine.
While many will pray that his career does not end in a heap of twisted metal by the side of a California road, many more will see him as a father of two, not a fragile legend. While he was revered for his mental strength on the golf course, it was the realisation that he had feet of clay that endeared him to an even greater army of admirers.