Woods targets final fling at St Andrews
Dream of pitching up at 150th Open next year in Scotland is helping legend cope with rehab
T‘I’m so far from going out there and competing against the world’s best’
iger Woods has long described st Andrews as his favourite place in the world to play golf. Now, the lure of the old Course and the 150th open in July might prove pivotal in keeping him from giving up the game competitively.
After the sobering revelations in a Golf Digest interview on Monday came an equally realistic press conference in the Bahamas yesterday as host of the Hero World Challenge, a glitzy invitational event featuring 20 stars including Bryson deChambeau and rory Mcilroy.
in his first such gathering since his horrific car accident last February, Woods admitted during the 40-minute sitdown that his back was hurting, his right leg was giving him gyp, and some big decisions have still to be made as to how far he wants to push himself in a bid to return to the game once more.
‘i can hit a few shots, i can chip and putt, but i am so far from going out there and competing against the world’s best,’ he revealed. ‘i have a long way to go to get to that point and i haven’t decided whether or not i want to get to that point. i’ve a long way to go in the rehab process and it’s not the fun part. it’s reps and breaking up scar tissue and things that really hurt. ’
The fact the open is returning to the old Course in what sounds a plausible timeframe might help him deal with the pain.
‘Yeah, i would love to be at st Andrews, there’s no doubt about that,’ he enthused. ‘To be a two-time champion there, just being part of the champions’ dinner is really neat. Physically, hopefully i can play, but i’ve got to get there first. Tournament’s not going to go anywhere, but i need to get there.’
While it was no surprise to hear Woods say on Monday that he wouldn’t play full-time again — even before his latest injuries, he’d hardly done that for the past decade — it’s clear there are plenty of hurdles to overcome simply for his declared aim to compete here and there.
‘i want to do what Mr Hogan did after his bad car accident,’ he said, referring to Ben Hogan’s miracle recovery from a near-fatal smash in 1949 to play a handful of events each year and win five majors. Hogan, though, was 35 and healthy when he had his accident. Woods was a decade older and had five knee surgeries and five operations on his back before the damage to his right leg that he said was far greater and more painful than anything he had gone through before.
six months after his accident, Hogan was well enough to travel the Atlantic and captain America’s ryder Cup side at ganton. At the same juncture, Woods had just progressed from a wheelchair to walking on crutches.
‘i’ve got a pretty nice house but i never realised how big it was until i started having to go around it on crutches,’ he said, wittily.
HogAN returned to the game a year after his smash at the Los Angeles open at riviera. That’s the tournament now known as the genesis open that Woods will host in February and one that will also mark the anniversary of his accident.
Woods, though, is at peace with what lies ahead. After all he’s been through, it’s hardly surprising that he is having no trouble with perspective. After first being thankful for being alive, he had three months where he lay in bed immobilised, during which time it was ‘touch and go’ whether he would lose his right leg.
Now he has progressed to the point where he can enjoy normal family life; enjoy watching his son Charlie play golf and his daughter sam play football. Wondering whether he will ever take on the world’s best again can wait.
‘At this point, i’m just very grateful that someone upstairs was taking care of me, that i’m
here and i’m also able to walk without a prosthesis,’ he said.