"Ain't no sunshine when you're gone" goes the mournful Bill Wither tune, and it seems like we'll have to adjust to his being gone.
Doug Ferguson with the game story on Tiger's Tuesday presser:
NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods painted a bleak picture of when he can return togolf or even get back to doing anything more than just walking.
Woods had two back surgeries in a span of 18 months followed by what he described only as another “procedure” in the same area last month. He has not started rehabilitation and does not know when his back will allow for that.
But at least he's staying upbeat, right?
“The hardest part for me is there’s really nothing I can look forward to, nothing I can build toward,” Woods said on Tuesday. “It’s just taking it literally just day by day and week by week and time by time.”
Woods is at the Hero World Challenge as the tournament host, not one of the 18 players at Albany Golf Club. The only time he touched a club was to pose for a photo, and he leaned on it while talking to Justin Rose and Zach Johnson on the putting green.
A month away from turning 40, the smile did come as easily for Woods.
Yowzer! He didn't even throw us a "I'm close" or "I'm regaining my speed" bones... It meanders down this path a bit more, and each answer opens the curtain a bit wider:
Would he be surprised if he was nothing more than a host at the Hero World Challenge a year from now? He couldn’t answer it.
“So, where is the light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t know, so that’s been hard,” Woods said. “I had to reset the clock each and every day and OK, here we go. This is a new day and this is taken for what it is. I listen to my surgeon. I listen to my physios and we just take it day by day. Hopefully, the day-by-day adds up to something positive here soon.”
We were all a bit surprised at the Ryder Cup news, but does this sound like a guy that expects to tee it up at Augusta?
Woods said he wants to play again and that anything he accomplishes the rest of his career “will be gravy,” but he sounded at peace with what he already has done — 79 career victories on the PGA Tour, second only to the 82 by Sam Snead; 14 majors, second to 18 by Jack Nicklaus; and PGA Tour player of the year a record 11 times.
“I’ve had a pretty good career for my 20s and 30s,” he said. “For my 20 years out here, I think I’ve achieved a lot, and if that’s all it entails, then I’ve had a pretty good run. But, I’m hoping that’s not it. I’m hoping that I can get back out here and compete against these guys. I really do miss it.”
The first step? Getting healthy enough to play soccer with his two children.“If I can get to that, then we can start talking about golf,” he said. “But, let me get to where I can pass the time and really be a part of my kids’ life in the way that I want to be part of it physically, not just as a cheerleader.”
Excuse the length and number of these excerpts, but the man seems resigned to a life without golf. So, how are folks reacting? Alex Myers posts the seven takeaways from the presser, including this topical reference:
3) And playing a lot of video games."I'm really good at video games. That's how I pass a lot of my time." We hope for Woods' sake whoever the governing body of video game competitions is still counts scores recorded as a solo player.
But this note seems especially ominous:
4) All three surgeries were on the same spot.Tiger confirmed he's had three microdiscectomies on the same spot in his back. However, he said the two most recent procedures surprised him because he thought the discomfort he was feeling was in his hip.
That can't be good, can it? I always thought that the body part that would end his career was the left knee, but of course my degree in physiology remains pending.
This one-sentence excerpt from Ron Green seems especially apt:
For several years, we’ve understood that Woods is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but he didn’t seem so close to the end as it sounded and felt this time.
Joel Beall surveys the Twitterverse, and finds it needing a hug:
Let's call this a wrap. Not that I've ever needed a reason to drink, but I certainly have one today.
And this was the beloved NY Post's take:
It was Brian Wacker at the Tour's website that originally made the comparison of Tiger to Kobe Bryant:
When Bryant announced that this will be his final season, he penned a poem in The Players Tribune that said his heart can take the pounding, his mind could handle the grind but that his body knows it’s time to say goodbye.
The good news for Woods is that golf isn’t the rigor that basketball is -- even if Woods attacked his game the same way Bryant did.
Vijay Singh won 22 times in his 40s. Davis Love III won this year’s Wyndham Championship at the age of 51. Neither of them had to overcome the level of injuries Woods has sustained, though.
Yeah, good luck with that. There's really only two golfers that sustained their careers at anything remotely close to their peak performance level, Veej and Sam Snead. Jack is sometimes included because he won three majors in his forties, though that's a bit of a red herring in that he won two of those at age forty and did nothing after that...well, except for that back-nine 30 at Augusta at age 46. And ask yourself, does Tiger's swing look anything like Vijay's or The Slammer's?
In case you missed it, Kobe's Ode to Roundball is here, and just after we gave an Unplayable Lies shout-out to Derek Jeter's Players' Tribune.
Shack tweeted this on Tuesday:
At Least Tiger's Not Writing Poetry Yet...: bit.ly/1HEUrAf
Then had to eat his words as Tiger penned an elegy to his lost friend:
Dear Golf
by Tiger Woods (almost)
From the Moment
I started rooting for my dad’s missed putts
And making imaginary
Putts to overtake Y.E. Yutz
And appeared on the Mike Douglas Show
I know one thing was real:
I fell in love with you as a way to make a lot of alimony and hush money.
A love so deep I gave you my all —
My leg, my knee, my shoulder
And eventually my back three times each time I visit Dr. Rich a whole lot older.
As a young boy
In love with the game
I never saw a time I could not beat Brandel with eyes closed left-handed
I only saw myself
Winning major after major
And so I practiced
Running like a Navy Seal
Hitting every loose ball on the chipping green
From Butch to Hank to Sean to Dr. Galea to Chris
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more cash
I played through sweat, a broken leg, even pro-ams
Not because drug testing was the following week
But because Jack’s record called me, and so did Phil Knight
I did everything for that record
Because that’s what you do, Steiny squeals
When someone makes you feel
As alive as bonus checks made me “feels”
You gave a six-year-old boy his Masters dream
And my accountants will always love you for it
But, I can’t love you obsessively for much longer
This season is about the big payment I have to make to Elin yonder
My heart can take the grinding
My mind can handle the missed cuts
But my wallet won’t let me say goodbye
And that’s ok
I’m almost ready to let golf go
I want you to know that now that January’s payment is coming
So we can savor the moments before I shuttle Kevin Kisner to Ryder Cup dining
The good and the bad
We have given each other
All that we have, almost.
And we both know, no matter how many times Tim Finchem calls
I’ll always be Pop’s kid
Making his putts
Chasing the Golden Bear
Taking dead aim
Saying It Is What It Is
Fist Pumping to the Skies
The Second best Golfer of all time
Love you always,Y.E. Yutz? Well done, Geoff.
Eldrick “Tiger” “Tont” Woods
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