Tiger Woods has remained silent on his current fitnessGETTY
The 47-year-old American Tiger Woods is unanimously regarded as one of the greatest golfers in history, with a total of 15 victories in the so-called ‘major’ tournaments (Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, US Open, and The Open Championship), second only to the 18 of his legendary compatriot Jack Nicklaus.
That fifteenth victory came four years ago when, in one of his many comebacks from recurring physical problems, he won his fifth Masters in Augusta, Georgia, against all the odds, beating Americans Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele by a single stroke.) With this victory, Woods broke a long drought of 11 years without a major (since the 2008 US Open).
Endowed with extraordinary physical strength and a precise game that allowed him to combine enormous power from the tee shots with unusual reliability on the fairways and an astonishing confidence in his putting game.
In 2009 he was sidelined for several months from the end of 2009 to the spring of 2010 due to family problems. By then, he had already broken his tibia and undergone three operations on his left knee, the last one in 2007 after breaking his anterior cruciate ligament, and in 2014 he began his ordeal with back problems.
He also underwent four operations on his lower back, the last of which was to fuse his lumbar spine to decompress the area and put an end to the pain that was tormenting him, and it was in these conditions that he achieved his epic victory at the 2019 Masters.
With 10 operations behind him and after suffering a serious accident in which he almost lost a leg, Tiger Woods returned last season to finish 47th at the Masters, withdrew from the PGA Championship, and missed the cut at the British Open, while this season he withdrew at Augusta.
After another break, the American is back in action this week at the Hero World Challenge in Albany, Bahamas. And his performance on day one was disappointing, although watching the Californian legend play golf is always a treat for the eyes of any fan.
A far cry from the -5 posted by his compatriots Tony Finau and Brian Harman (this year’s winner of The Open Championship), Woods was three shots over par. He was at par at the halfway stage, having made up for bogeys at 4 and 6 with birdies at 3 and 5, and under par with birdies at 11 and 14 and a bogey at 12.
Lacking confidence and hours of competition, the legendary Eldrick Tont (his real name) Woods collapsed over the last four holes with a disastrous double bogey in seven on the 15th, followed by bogeys on the 16th and 17th. He will look to bounce back in Friday’s second round on the Caribbean island.
