Tiger Woods: reality check for golf world as car crash diagnosis confirms slim chances of comeback
- Stanford Medical Center chief says ‘very, very unlikely’ Woods will play pro golf again after suffering major leg trauma
- McIlroy recalls Woods’ ‘greatest comeback in sports’ in 2017 but says ‘golf is so far from the equation right now’
The PGA Tour without Tiger Woods was always inevitable purely because of age. His shattered right leg from his SUV flipping down a hill on a sweeping road through coastal Los Angeles suburbs only brings that closer.
“Listen, when Tiger wants to talk about golf, we’ll talk about golf,” commissioner Jay Monahan said at the World Golf Championship in Florida. “When you’re going to overcome what he needs to overcome, I think the love of all of our players and everybody out here, it’s going to come forward in a big way and across the entire sporting world. I think he’ll feel that energy and I think that’s what we should all focus on.”
Woods made it clear what he faces with an update posted early on Wednesday to social media by his team that outlined the “long surgical procedure” at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Four previous surgeries to repair ligaments were done on the left knee. This is the first major trauma to the right leg. Woods has had five surgeries on his lower back in the last seven years. The most recent was in December, a microdiscectomy to remove a pressurised disc that was pinching a nerve.
