FILE PHOTO: The Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – November 15, 2020 Tiger Woods of the U.S. on the 4th hole during the final round REUTERS/Mike Segar
Tiger Woods admitted Wednesday that he’s making slow progress with respect to the injuries sustained from his car wreck of nearly one year ago.
How slow? Well …
“I wish I could tell you when I’m playing again. I want to know, but I don’t,” the 15-time majors winner said during a news conference at the Genesis Invitational. “My golf activity has been very limited. I can chip and putt really well and hit short irons very well, but I haven’t done any long stuff seriously. I’m still working.
“I’m still working on the walking part. My foot was a little messed up there about a year ago, so the walking part is something that I’m still working on, working on strength and development in that. It takes time. What’s frustrating is it’s not at my timetable. I want to be at a certain place, but I’m not. I’ve just got to continue working. I’m getting better, yes. But as I said, not at the speed and rate that I would like. You add in the age factor, too. You just don’t quite heal as fast, which is frustrating.”
Woods, 46, is the tournament host of the event in Pacific Palisades, California. His single-car crash on Feb. 23, 2021, occurred not too far from the Riviera Country Club, site of the event.
Woods sustained open fractures in the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula in his right leg.
“It’s altered,” Woods said. “My right leg does not look like my left leg, let’s put it that way.”
Woods’ activities have been limited outside of chipping and putting, save for a 36-hole PNC Championship with his son, Charlie, in mid-December. Woods mixed the use of a golf cart along with some walking at the 36-hole, two-man scramble event.
“I can walk on a treadmill all day, that’s easy,” Woods said. “That’s just straight; there’s no bumps in the road. But walking on a golf course where there’s undulations, I have a long way to go. My leg was not in very good position there about a year ago, and I’ve had to work through a lot of different operations and a lot of different scenarios.
“It’s been tough, but I’ve gotten here, I’ve gotten this far and I still have a long way to go. Each and every day’s a fight, and I welcome that fight. Get up in the morning, let’s go a few more rounds.”