Hopeful Woods likely out of Memorial, targets Open
It's been a bazillion balmy degrees this spring in Tiger Woods' adopted hometown, which makes him perhaps the only person residing in the state of Florida who has uttered the following sentence
"I'm getting pretty tired of ice," Woods said.
He could have said the same for crutches, painkillers, ultrasound and soft-tissue rehab work, a few of the other treatments he's faced daily in an attempt to patch his flat tires in time for the U.S. Open in three weeks' time.
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| Tiger's short stay at the TPC was a physical setback. (Getty Images) |
He's always been long on intent. Now it's all about execution and his increasingly limited physical reality. Of late, he's been under veritable house arrest.
"I'll try to do everything I can," he said. "I should be good to go."
Whether he can finish what he started, and to what degree he will be effective, once again will swallow whole the tournament storyline when the open begins June 16 at Congressional Country Club in Washington, D.C.
Woods, appearing at a media day Tuesday to promote the AT&T National event in July outside Philadelphia that benefits his charity, all but laughed as he characterized reports of his career-worst victory drought and lingering leg injuries as exaggerated.
"It's certainly not the doomsday that some of the press has been writing about," he said.
But it's been no walk in the park, either -- and that's a pretty good cliché to apply to his current wobbly state. Woods said he has been using crutches and has been fitted with a boot on a foot to help his Achilles and knee injuries heal, both the after-effects of four knee surgeries and an injury sustained while hitting a shot last month at the Masters.
Woods, 35, said the laundry list of current aches are nowhere near as severe as what he faced when he had knee reconstruction after winning his last major, three years ago at the U.S. Open, and that doctors have not broached the notion of knee replacement or other types of surgery.
"Not once," he said.
That alone represents the best news his fans have heard in months.
Woods aggravated his knee and Achilles issues while hitting an awkward shot in the final round at Augusta National and admitted that probably should not have played at the Players Championship, where he shot 42 over nine holes and quit for the second year in a row because of injury. He dropped this week to No. 12 in the world rankings, his lowest mark since 1997, before he won his first major title.
Woods hasn't won a title of any kind on the PGA Tour in 20 months and has completed four stroke-play events this year in five months. He indicated that he hopes to hit balls again starting next week, depending on how his myriad injuries respond to treatment.
"I haven't been pain-free for a long time," he said. "Thank god for ibuprofen."
Woods said he has played in discomfort many times since the reconstructive surgery in mid-2008, though he never let on and had a stellar 2009 season, winning six times and claiming the FedEx Cup points bonus. His current state, however, is worse than at any point since recovering from the last surgery.
"I just played through it," he said. "Nothing to this degree. There's a difference between being in pain and being injured."
This is clearly the latter, with a bunch of associated maladies adding to the latest burden.
"Chicken and the egg," he said of the knee and heel issues. "They're both related."
In an attempt to be optimistic, Woods noted that when he won the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken and shredded knee, he didn't play at all between the Masters and that U.S. Open.
"At least I have nine more holes of live competition," he said, while laughing about his brief Players appearance.
While Woods seemed confident that the knee issues were mostly a passing issue, not everybody was quite so sure. He never blinked when the subject of his records pursuit was delicately raised. The former world No. 1 needs to win four more Grand Slam titles to match Jack Nicklaus' total of 18 -- a total that one other active PGA Tour player has managed.
"Eighteen is still the benchmark in our sport," Woods said, noting that there was a 24-year span between Nicklaus' first and last major victories. "It takes a long time."
The meter's running. His odometer isn't.
Woods noted that he used to jog 6 miles sometimes before competitive rounds, and nowadays, his knee "has atrophied" because of a lack of exercise. He hopes to resume strength training by the end of next week, by which time the Memorial will have started, so you can pretty clearly see where he is, and isn't, headed. The Nicklaus event in Columbus, Ohio, being in the latter category.
As numerous surgeons who haven't worked with Woods have noted in broad generalities offered from afar, with a knee that's had that much trauma, there's no such thing as a minor injury. Woods admitted as much, but thinks it's nothing he can't handle.
"As far as the future of it, I've had four surgeries on it, so obviously it's not what it was when I was little and I'm sure down the road it may be a little more difficult," he said. "But hopefully I'll be in a cart by then on the senior tour.
"Between now and then it should be pretty good."
At this point, pretty or good would be a huge step forward.
