‘Making progress:’ Tiger Woods shares first video of swing after accident

Tiger Woods, nine months after suffering multiple injuries in a car crash, provided one of the best signs to date that his rebab is moving along: 

The 15-time major champion tweeted out a four-second video on Sunday morning of him swinging.  

“Making progress,” he wrote with it. 

There appeared to be no hesitation in the swing. Next to Woods was a bucket of balls, and behind him was a Full Swing KIT Launch Monitor. He was wearing a black wrap on his surgically repaired right leg, along with a white hat and shoes, and black shorts. 

The video comes nearly three-quarters of a year since the incident. On Feb. 23, Woods was involved in a single-car crash in the Los Angeles area, where he suffered multiple injuries, including several to his right leg. Since then, reports of his progress have been limited to other Woods’ tweets, updates from fellow pros and the occasional fan photo. 

On the day after his accident, Woods’ twitter account shared that he had undergone “a long surgical procedure on his lower right leg and ankle,” and two days later, it tweeted that he had “follow-up procedures.” On March 16, the account tweeted that Woods had returned to his Florida home, and in early April, he shared a photo of him on crutches outside of his Jupiter house. 

From there, fellow pros would provide additional updates. At the Masters in April, both Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas said that they had recently visited him, and Thomas said that “it’s been good just to go hang out with him.” Thomas said. 

Just over a week ago, Thomas told the No Laying Up podcast that Woods “was doing well.”

“I’d say I probably go over and see him two or three times a week when I’m home,” Thomas said. “I go over there more so to let our dogs play and hang out — it wears our pup out. But yeah, he’s doing well. Especially all things considered, I think he’s … I mean, it’s Groundhog Day, every day’s the exact same thing for him. But at least he’s able to — pictures were going around of him at [his son] Charlie’s tournament, [his daughter] Sam’s soccer tournaments here and there. He’s able to be a Dad somewhat again, which is most important.”

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Podcast host Chris Solomon, while explaining that while he was reluctant to put too much emphasis on Woods’ golf future, said he and the rest of the world remain curious whether Woods is even thinking long-term about a comeback. 

“I don’t know, I mean, I know that he’s going to try,” Thomas said. “I don’t see him ever playing if he can’t play well. He doesn’t strike me as a guy who’s played at home and he’s shooting a bunch of 75s and 76s and he’s like ‘OK, I’m gonna give Augusta a try this year.’ That’s not really gonna be him, at least from my understanding, what I know of him. He knows that there’s a pretty good chance that that was the last chance he really ever had, before that, of making another run, but at the same time I know how determined he is and I know he’s going to want to at least try to give something again.

“Obviously I hope he does. But at the same time, as I said after the accident, as long as he can be a dad and be normal with that again, that’s the number one priority, and the rest of this is a bonus.”

Up next potentially for Woods is his event early next month in the Bahamas, the Hero World Challenge. Earlier this week, former NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip tweeted that he had talked to Woods at a corporate event for Monster energy drink, and there’s been speculation that Woods would also attend the tournament.