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Woods’ future in doubt

AKRON — Never mind Tiger Woods being a huge doubt for next week’s US PGA or, indeed, for next month’s Ryder Cup.

Woods playing the ‘one-footed’ shot that led to his toppling into the sand on 
the second hole at the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday. Photo: AP

Woods playing the ‘one-footed’ shot that led to his toppling into the sand on
the second hole at the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday. Photo: AP

AKRON — Never mind Tiger Woods being a huge doubt for next week’s US PGA or, indeed, for next month’s Ryder Cup.

When the 14-time Major champion was driven away from the Firestone course on Sunday, clutching his back in agony following his withdrawal after eight holes, there were fears for his long-term future.

Did he come back too soon from surgery to his spine? Other professionals have taken a year and not three months to return from the same procedure. Will he need another operation and, if so, is there any chance he can ever return to his old predominance or even to the status of best player in the world?

All these questions, and more, were being asked without any answers in the wake of Woods’ latest setback in the final round of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

He arrived at Akron as the defending champion, yet when he left the only thing he was defending was himself against the back spasms which had blighted him since his second shot on the second hole, when from a horrid lie above a trap he toppled into the sand after playing a “one-footed” shot.

“I fell back into the bunker on the second and just jarred it (his back) and it’s been spasming ever since,” Woods said. When asked whether the pain was in the same spot where he underwent his microdiscectomy in March, he said: “It’s just the whole lower back. I don’t know what happened.”

He again replied “I don’t know” when asked about the chances of teeing up in three days’ time in the season’s final Major at Valhalla, where he won the PGA in 2000.

The fact he mentioned “spasms” rang so many alarm bells, as this was what he had complained about before going under the knife. Nobody expected him to come back so soon — including his own medical team and the pros who had gone through the same exhaustive rehab.

“The people I’ve talked to who’ve had the same procedure have no idea how I am back playing so soon,” Woods said on Wednesday. “They just can’t understand it.”

The best the game can hope for is that this injury is not related to the surgery and that after some treatment he will be fine for the PGA. If it is connected, then it is hard to envisage his doctors allowing him to play, and should he miss his third Major of the campaign it will be even harder to see how Tom Watson could select him as a wild card for the Ryder Cup.

Woods has played only nine competitive rounds since his surgery and there is inevitably the suspicion that he is far from fixed. His confidence will surely be affected as much as anything.

Said former Major winner Nick Faldo: “It will be extremely difficult for Tiger to have the self-belief you need when he goes to hit a driver and play a full-shot out of the rough.”

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

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