BIG STEP ‘BACK’
Woods isn’t a quitter, but latest injury puts career in doubt again
SEVEN rounds of competitive golf since December.
That’s all Tiger Woods has played in his latest comeback attempt from back ailments before we again are left to wonder whether his brilliant career is in peril — possibly for good this time.
Is this a knee-jerk reaction to Woods withdrawing on Friday from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic because of back spasms, just an hour before his secondround tee time? Possibly. Hopefully.
But how can you not wonder whether this is it for him? How can you not think he simply never is going to be healthy enough to compete again?
The statistics attached to Woods — otherworldly, dominant numbers that once left you breathless — now are damning and border on the bizarre.
In the first 322 tournament starts of his career, Woods withdrew from five tournaments. In his past 19 starts, he has withdrawn four times.
Since the beginning of 2014, Woods has had more back surgeries (three) than top-10 finishes (one). In that span, Woods has failed to make it to the weekend in more tournaments (11) than he has made it (10).
Since 2014, Woods has posted seven rounds of 77 or worse and just three of 65 or better. His 5over 77 in Thursday’s opening round was his worst score playing outside the United States since 1996, when he shot 79 as an amateur in the first round of the Australian Open.
The optics from Friday in Dubai are not good. His 77 left him 12 shots off the lead held by Sergio Garcia , meaning he was going to have to shoot something around 67 or better to make the cut. And the weather at the golf course was so bad, second-round play eventually was halted because of high winds with George Coetzee (-9) leading Garcia by a stroke.
And there was Woods, who received an undisclosed seven-figure appearance fee (which is believed to be guaranteed regardless of how many rounds he played), withdrawing an hour before his tee time with little chance to make the cut and poor weather ahead.
It provided fodder for a field day for the Woods haters on social media who called him out for quitting.
I don’t believe he’s a quitter. And, as a personal policy, I never question an athlete’s injury.
That is not to say that I believe everything Woods says. Woods, through his agent Mark Steinberg, said the back spasms in Dubai are not the same as the nerve pain that sent him to surgery and kept him out from August 2015 until last December.
After Woods’ opening round in Dubai, despite looking like he was moving gingerly, Woods insisted he “wasn’t in pain at all,’’ adding, “I was just trying to hit shots, and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”
Dubai was Woods’ second event of an aggressive scheduled run of four tournaments in a five-week stretch, beginning with the Farmers Insurance Open last week at Torrey Pines and including the Genesis Open in two weeks in Los Angeles and then the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Steinberg said Woods remains optimistic he will be able to play in Los Angeles in two weeks. But how can anyone know for sure? His life has become one of waiting for the other shoe to drop regarding his physical state.
Since he returned at his own Hero World Challenge in December in the Bahamas, after more than 15 months away from the game, Woods has raved about how good he has felt physically, how much stronger he hasgotten. And now this. Woods, after missing the cut at Torrey Pines last week, flew 17 hours from Los Angeles to Dubai to play 18 holes. Sure, he made more than $1 million for his efforts, but you have to think he would trade that money and more for his full health.
Because without good health, there will be no arguments or conjecture: He will be done.