The excruciating details of Tiger Woods’ return from his fourth back surgery are coming out piece by piece.
With Woods looking like a true contender again, after finishing tied for second and for fifth at PGA events in consecutive weeks, he pulled back the curtain a bit more on what it took for him to get back in a position to compete with the best.
“For the better part of four to six months, I had to be helped out of bed every day,” Woods said in an interview with ESPN on Thursday. “And there were some days where you’d help me and I couldn’t stand up. I’d have to either just fall to the floor or just stay in bed.”
Woods had his most recent surgery last April to alleviate pain he was still feeling in his lower back and legs. Since 2014, he had been back and forth between recovery and subpar play while dealing with a multitude of injuries, which prevented him from playing golf with friends — it hurt to swing clubs and ride in golf carts, he said — and from joining in games with his children.
“I used to bring my son out here and he’d play and I couldn’t,” Woods said, “because I couldn’t swing a golf club. I could barely ride in a golf cart. I missed being able to go out, my buddies call me and say let’s go play a quick nine. … I couldn’t do that for a better part of four years.
“And for a game that’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, now I couldn’t do it. That was very disheartening.”
During the low periods, Woods felt he could only focus on relearning basic motor skills and returning to daily routines, not on resuming his golf career.
After a promising showing at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last weekend, and the Valspar Championship the week before, the 42-year-old Woods believes he’s finally on the right track to winning major tournaments again. The challenge begins in two weeks at the Masters.
“I am pretty close, I think, to putting it all together,” Woods said. “It’s just like riding a bike, but it’s a new bike. It’s a new body. I know what to do, I know what I can do, but it feels different. That’s one of the things that I’m still getting used to, but I’m still learning and when I fully put it together again and fully know my limits, then I think I’ll start winning golf tournaments again.”
