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The PGA Tour without Tiger Woods was always inevitable simply because of age. His mangled right leg from his SUV flipping down a hill on a wide highway through the coastal suburbs of Los Angeles only brings him closer.
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County Fire Chief Daryl Osby clarified that an ax, not the ‘jaws of life’, was used to help remove Woods from his vehicle. Source: Reuters
Golf wasn’t ready yesterday to contemplate the future of its biggest star after the 10th and most complicated surgery on Woods, 45. There was more relief that he was alive.
“Listen, when Tiger wants to talk about golf, we’ll talk about golf,” said Commissioner Jay Monahan at the World Golf Championships in Florida. “When you are going to overcome what he needs to overcome, I believe that the love of all our players and of all those who are here, will manifest itself in a big way and throughout the sports world.
“I think he will feel that energy and I think that’s what we should all focus on.”
Woods made clear what he is facing with an update posted early yesterday on social media by his team describing the “lengthy surgical procedure” at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Anish Mahajan, the medical director, said Woods broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg in several places. Those were stabilized by a rod in the tibia. He said a combination of screws and pins was used to stabilize additional injuries to the ankle and foot.
Four previous surgeries were performed to repair ligaments in the left knee. This is the first major trauma to the right leg. Woods has had five lower back surgeries in the past seven years. The most recent was in December, a microdiscectomy to remove a pressurized disc that was pinching a nerve.
“I would say, unfortunately, that it is very, very unlikely that I will ever be a professional golfer again after these injuries,” said Dr. Michael Gardner, chief of orthopedic trauma at Stanford Medical Center. “His age, his multiple back problems, this will be a very long road ahead if he decides to try and return to his previous level of golf.”
Can golf do without the player singularly responsible for its growth?
His decisive victory at the 1997 Masters sent media interest in golf skyrocketing. More than the first player of black heritage to wear a green jacket, he won at a more prolific rate than anyone in history. The timing was impeccable, as the PGA Tour negotiated a television deal that sent the awards skyrocketing.
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He had to be cut from his vehicle after it rolled several times, authorities said. Source: 1 NEWS
Woods won his first tournament when he was 20 years old at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, where the total purse was $ 1.65 million. At this week’s World Golf Championships, first place alone is worth $ 1.82 million.
Woods made everyone rich.
The PGA Tour has traveled this road before.
Ten years ago, when Woods was still resentful of sordid serial adultery revelations and missed three months with more injuries, the PGA Tour negotiated a nine-year television deal with higher rights fees. There was no guarantee that Woods could get back to the top of his game.
Woods had a reduced schedule even when he was younger and healthier. He has never played more than 21 times in a year on the PGA Tour, which runs events in 46 weeks this season.
He also tends to go back to the same courses. But when you play, and there is no pandemic, no one needs to study television ratings to gauge its impact. Fans often stand six and seven rows behind tees and greens to take a look. No other player attracts that kind of attention. The top 10 in the world combined don’t do that.
Woods doesn’t move the needle. Woods is the needle.
“It’s always great when he’s playing in a tournament or he’s here because it gives that tournament an extra dimension that it doesn’t normally have,” said four-time Major League Champion Rory McIlroy. “We were all heading towards that day when Tiger was not going to be part of the game.”
Woods had only one top 10 last year, and that was before the pandemic. Even after golf returned, he waited another month to start. He has played only seven times since July and never made the top 35. He is one win away from his 83rd win, which would set a PGA Tour record, the most reasonable for him. That was before the accident.
McIlroy has already made a comeback. He often talks about having lunch one day with Woods in Florida, right after Woods’ fourth back surgery to fuse his lumbar spine. He saw the pain. And two years later, he saw Woods win the Masters for the fifth time, his fifteenth major.
“I don’t want to take anything away from what Ben Hogan did after his car accident or any of the other comebacks that athletes have had in other sports, but right now I can’t think of a bigger comeback in sports than the trip. he did from that lunch we had in 2017 to winning the Masters a couple of years later, “said McIlroy.
Hogan threw himself in front of his wife just before they were hit by a Greyhound bus in 1949. He broke his pelvis, clavicle and left ankle, broke a rib and had blood clots that left him with poor circulation for the rest. of their life. Hogan was 36 at the time.
What the future holds for Woods and the tour is not something the players are willing to accept.
“At this stage, I think everyone should be grateful that he is here, that he is alive, that his children have not lost their father,” McIlroy said. “That is the most important. Golf is so far out of the equation right now, it’s not even on the map. “
