Tiger Woods has plenty of W’s on his recent record, but they’re regrettably followed by D’s.
Being carted from the course at Riviera Country Club with influenza was the latest setback in what was meant to be a new beginning for Woods.
He was full of smiles and vibrance at the start of the week in Los Angeles as Sun Day Red was introduced to the world, featuring brand-new lines of polo shirts, hoodies and midlayers.
Let’s hope the new Woods x TaylorMade venture produces hot water bottles and blankets too.
When footage emerged of the 48-year-old being escorted from hole 7, doubts were immediately cast around his physical health.
Suppose there was hysteria brewing at Woods’ initial withdrawal from the Genesis Invitational. In that case, the mind boggles what golf fans thought when images emerge of an ambulance and a fire engine on the scene.
Thankfully they weren’t needed, but it was less than a year ago when Dr Martin O’Malley was needed to perform surgery to address post-traumatic arthritis in Woods’ foot.
This was after brutal conditions at the Masters forced Woods to pull his name from the field. He trudged around the course with that increasingly familiar limp which will be a teething issue for the foreseeable future.
At the PGA Championship a year before, one clip showed Woods walking down a slope and his leg buckling in a grim fashion before he withdrew from the event at Southern Hills.
To be fair, this time around at ‘Riv’ wasn’t your typical Tiger withdrawal. Both he and close friend Rob McNamara have said he was ill and his back and leg aren’t an issue. Gary Woodland also said “he wasn’t himself.”
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But it is another 72-hole event he hasn’t completed. It’s another 72-hole event in which he hasn’t started the final 18 holes.
Sure, he played well at this event, which he regularly hosts, 12 months ago but his body was building towards a breakdown which was laid bare at Augusta National.
Are we one more Tiger Woods injury away from retirement?
Woods will aim to play the first major of the year in April, a tournament he has won five times, but I wonder how many withdrawals it will take from now on for him to accept defeat.
Let’s hypothetically grant Woods a free shot at 72 holes at the Masters. Imagine the cut doesn’t apply to ‘the Cat’.
If there was a betting market for Woods to complete 72 holes, what price would you want? Would you back him to hole out on 18 on Sunday?
If it gets to the point where you know he isn’t going to finish, then why start the race?
Many, many people have probably told Woods to stop and he’s ignored them. He became a 15-time major champion because of it.
His mental strength is as impressive as his victory record itself, but his aim to play once a month (play meaning without withdrawing), as much as we would love to see it, is fanciful.
For someone who made his debut on the PGA Tour in 1992, Woods evidently doesn’t want to close this book as he grimly battles to start a new page.
Each comeback he makes leads to countless clips of his swing, his ball speeds and shot trajectories, but soon the tumbleweeds will follow and expectations will be non-existent, even from the most die-hard TW fans, if more early exits are made.
How many disappointments does Tiger have left? When will the patience with his body snap?
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