Forget the forgettable results, Tiger Woods says.
The 15-time major winner believes he’s improving.
“I’ve gotten better,” Woods said Friday, “even though my results really haven’t shown it, but physically I’ve gotten better, which is great.
“I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again.”
New photos reveal what he’s working through.
Taken Monday as Woods watched his son, Charlie, at the U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan, the pictures show a pair of sizable scars on his right leg, the result of procedures following a car crash in February 2021. In previous public appearances, Woods had covered the leg by wearing either pants or an athletic sleeve while in shorts; on Monday, he wore shorts without a sleeve.
Two pictures of Woods’ right leg were taken by Raj Mehta of Getty Images, while others surfaced online. One of Mehta’s photos showed the outside of Woods’ right leg, where a scar starts a couple inches below his knee and goes down to his ankle. There is also another scar, just below his kneecap. Mehta’s second photo offered a look at the inner side of Woods’ right leg, where a scar starts at his knee and finishes a few inches above his ankle.
Both pictures can be seen below:
The work has seemingly been done since the single-car crash in California. Later that day, he underwent surgery on his right leg and ankle, and his team provided this statement from Dr. Anish Mahajan, the then-chief medical officer and interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where the procedure took place:
“Mr. Woods suffered significant orthopedic injuries to his right lower extremity that were treated during emergency surgery by orthopedic trauma specialists at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center. Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia. Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins. Trauma to the muscle and soft-tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling.”
Nine months later, in an interview with Golf Digest, Woods revealed that amputation.
“There was a point in time, I won’t say it was 50/50, but it was [expletive] near there that I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” Woods said. “Once I [kept it], I wanted to test and see if I still had my hands.”
Since the crash, Woods has undergone additional procedures, and his playing schedule has been limited. In 2021, he played just the PNC Championship, a major winner-relative scramble event, with Charlie. The next year, Woods played the Masters, PGA Championship, the Open Championship and the PNC Championship. Last year, he played the Genesis Invitational (an event he hosts), the Masters, the Hero World Challenge (another event he hosts) and the PNC, and this year, he’s played in the Genesis and all four majors. Outside of the Hero and PNC, Woods has finished no better than a tie for 45th in the events he’s played.
At last week’s Open Championship, where he shot rounds of eight-over 79 and 77 at Royal Troon to miss the cut, Woods said he’d play the Hero and PNC at the end of the year, though he was unclear what next year would look like.
“Yeah, I’m physically feeling a lot better than I did at the beginning of the year,” Woods said after his first round. “At the end of last year, it was tough, and I haven’t played a whole lot. I think that, as the year has gone on, I have gotten better. I just wish I could have played a little bit more, but I’ve been saving it for the majors just in case I do something pretty major and then take myself out of it.
“Hopefully next year will be a little bit better than this year.”