Woods’ future under cloud
Tiger Woods’ decision to rule himself out of contention for next month’s Ryder Cup was a wise one given his struggles since undergoing back surgery in March, but it also raises fresh concerns over the former world No 1’s playing future.
Questions will undoubtedly be raised as to whether he decided to return to competition too soon after having a procedure to treat a pinched nerve in his lower back.
Though he says he has always recovered quickly from surgeries, he looked tournament rusty and a shadow of his former self in his past four PGA Tour appearances, twice missing the cut and once withdrawing midway through the final round.
At 38, Woods is perhaps also paying the price of long hours spent on the range and in the gym, where he has always pushed himself punishingly hard.
The 14-times major winner has had four knee surgeries, along with a string of other injuries, and undergone several swing changes in an attempt to limit the more-severe effects of the golf swing on his body.
He famously won the most recent of his major titles in a playoff for the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines where he defied doctors’ orders to compete after suffering a double stress fracture in his left shinbone before the tournament.
Yet former PGA Championship winner, Paul Azinger, believes Woods’ problems this year are not purely physical, and that perhaps he has spent too much time on yet another overhaul of his swing.
‘‘Something is happening in the strongest and greatest mind that golf has ever known that is different, and he has got to fix it. It is not just physical.’’
Woods missed the cut at last week’s PGA Championship, only the fourth time he has done so as a professional in the majors, having pronounced himself fit to compete on the eve of the tournament.
Only time will tell if following doctor’s orders will help Woods get back to the sort of form that has earned him 79 career victories on the PGA Tour.
He will be 39 in December, so perhaps has no more than five or six years left in his prime as a golfer.