Tiger Woods admits comeback issues: 'I don’t ever think I’ll feel great'

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Tiger Woods seems to be struggling internally with the knowledge that he will be limited physically for the rest of his golf career. He knows, and has spoken of, the toll surgeries and his rush to come back to competition prematurely have taken on the length of his career.

However, as he attempts to find a new form that can make him effective and keep him healthy, he seems, at times, to want to downplay the sometimes visible pain and discomfort he feels while practicing and playing.

Speaking to former R&A chief executive Peter Dawson last week before he ultimately withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic, Woods seemed to foreshadow what happened before his second-round tee time.

“I feel good, not great,” Woods said. “Granted, I don’t ever think I’ll feel great, because it’s three back surgeries, four knee operations. I’m always going to be a little bit sore, that’s just the way it is. As long as I can function at a good enough level, I’m fine with that.”

Woods, who withdrew from the event with what was termed lower back spasms, seems determined in part to pay off the 16-month recovery and rehab process from the two back surgeries in Fall 2015 that took him out of action.

“It was tough,” he said of rehab. “It was more than brutal.”

While Woods has shot 76, 72 and 77 in three competitive rounds in 2017, he keeps his sights on winning.

“This is the changing of the guard. My generation is getting older, but if I’m teeing it up, the goal is to win it,” he said. “That doesn’t change whether I’m injured, coming off an injury, or I’m playing well or playing poorly. If I’m in the event, it’s to win the event.”

But it’s also important to be realistic. Woods will have to work toward winning, and that’s going to come with being able to play a somewhat robust, typical schedule. So far, Woods hasn’t been able to do that. His status for next week’s Genesis Open is still in the air, with agent Mark Steinberg telling Golf Channel there was “no update” on Woods’ health. Perhaps presciently, Woods made it clear that he can’t get to his goals as a part-time player.

“You know playing once every three or four weeks that’s not going to cut it.”

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo Sports

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