I've been milking my Wither Tiger meme since this January 2014 post, though this one is quite different. It's also a story to which I have little to add at least in a factual sense, so little effort will be made there.
I am, however, struck by several ironies, so let's see if those are interesting....
Irony No. 1 - The question top of everyone's mind is the, "Is he done?" question, one that's both silly (at the level of our knowledge), yet equally inevitable. I find this ironic because I had pretty much settled on the thought that he was pretty well done before this accident. The fifth back surgery was pretty much all I needed there, as well as those images from the Father-Son of him gingerly bending to pick his ball out of the hole. I'll not belabor it, but I'm not the only one thinking along these lines:
Even before horrific accident, Tiger Woods' playing future was wildly uncertain
Irony No. 2 - Since that 2019 Masters, we've been treated to a series of arguments as to whether Tiger's comeback was the GOAT of comebacks, whether in sports or golf, specifically. The obvious challenger for that coveted title was Ben Hogan's recovery from that devastating collision with a bus on the back
I'll have more on the Hogan accident below, but were Tiger the highly competitive sort ( a real stretch, I know), and were he covetous of the Hogan reputation, what would he have done differently? Of course, as golf buddy Ed Pavelle noted in an e-mail, Hogan was a far younger man at the time of his accident, specifically 36 years old. I'll have more on the Hogan accident below.
Irony No. 3 - Tiger was going to be featured prominently in this morning's post had the accident not occurred, as your humble blogger was planning to take him to the woodshed again for that Sunday non-interview.
This isn't the time for it, but the continued refusal to share any details of his condition remains maddening. Fir instance, Notah Begay had indicated right after his January surgery that he was already hitting balls (not ripping drivers, which we can all understand), and similar reports have surfaced since the Nantz interview. Again, when asked about golf activities, his only answer was that bit about the putter shaft length. Why this remains a state secret eludes me, but I find that side of Tiger the least admirable.
So, how much do you know about that Hogan accident? I'm going to guess not enough, but Geoff is here to help us with a timely e-mail. To me, the most notable aspect of it was the instinctive actions of Hogan, which I've always assumed made a dramatic impression on the American public at the time:
In Martin Davis’ incredible Ben Hogan: The Man Behind The Mystique, I found much neededdistraction and even some comfort given the horror of Woods’ injuries.
Before there were airbags, anti-lock brakes and private jets, Ben and Valerie Hogan were driving home to Fort Worth and spent the night 75 miles outside of El Paso. The next morning, February 2nd, 1949, they continued to Fort Worth. Fog made visibility difficult and Ben thought they had a flat tire at one point. It was ice on the road.
When a Greyhound bus pulled out from behind an oncoming truck, Valerie screamed out, “Honey he’s going to hit us.” Ben lept across over Valerie, saving both of their lives. The impact left his body destroyed.
“Get out! Get out!” Valerie remembered Ben saying, fearing the car might start burning. He could not get out of the car but was eventually assisted by bystanders who oddly knew both his and Valerie’s name.
That must be some of that toxic masculinity we hear so much about these days...Good thing today's woke kids have banished that poison from our lives.
After two hours, an ambulance delivered Hogan to the nearest hospital in El Paso, 100 miles away. He had a fractured left ankle, double fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone and a chipped rib. He later had chest pains from a blood clot that moved to his lungs. The outlook was bleak. The best surgeon was one state over. So Valerie asked a General friend of Hogan’s to commission a military plane that would fly in the special vascular surgeon from New Orleans. The doctor eventually arrived, had to take a nap from his all night journey, but successfully saved Ben Hogan from a fatal stroke.
That blood clot damn near killed him. But compare that to this update on Tiger's injuries:
As part of a statement on Woods' official Twitter account, Dr. Anish Mahajan of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center updated the famed golfer's condition, saying in part that he had multiple "open fractures" to his lower right leg, had a rod placed in his tibia, and screws and pins inserted in his foot and ankle during an emergency surgery.
"Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia," said Mahajan, the chief medical officer and interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA. "Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins. Trauma to the muscle and soft-tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling."
Bones do heal, though there's quite a bit going on with the muscles and soft tissue as well. I can't conceive of what the realistic time frame might be, but we can pencil in months of misdirection and evasion from Team Tiger, so we've got that going for us...
But Geoff has more on the Hogan story, including bits that I only remember in passing. But with 2021 being a Ryder Cup year, Hogan's experience is worth recounting:
Seven months later Hogan kept his commitment to Captain the Ryder Cup team. By late summer 1949 Hogan was well-enough to travel to Massachusetts for a Ryder Cup practice match prior to an overseas journey to Ganton Golf Club. Two years prior in the first Ryder Cup played since 1937, Hogan served as a playing captain and was accused by Great Britain’s Henry Cotton of having illegal grooves. The clubs were deemed conforming.
Turns out certain players generated “speed” back then, too.
Memories of the controversy were apparently not lost in the car accident. When the U.S. team arrived for three days of practice and adjustment to the smaller British ball, controversy erupted. Maybe Hogan was a little spicy from the long journey and all the aches and pains, but he called out the legality of Team GB’s clubs. Cotton was no longer playing, but Hogan was right. Several players were found to have illegal grooves.
The R&A rules official who made the determination? Bernard Darwin.
The U.S. team beat a strong Great Britain squad 7-5.
What, you thought Ryder Cups only got contentious after Seve came on the scene? Shack even comes up with the Pathe newsreel of that Ryder Cup:
One under-reported coincidence related to Hogan's accident is that, passing by the accident scene going in the other direction was Jack Fleck, who would deny Hogan a fifth U.S. Open at Olympic few years later. Hogan's relationship with Fleck is its own interesting story, as there were only two players in the field of that 1955 U.S. Open playing Ben Hogan golf clubs, and Jack Fleck was the second (in fact, Hogan brought with and hand-delivered a wedge to Fleck that week). But the most powerful part of this book recounting that upset was the description of the hours of preparation Hogan required for each round of golf. We'll call that Irony No. 4, because it sounds much like what Tiger's needed to do the last few years to be ready for an early morning tee time. And that's what was before yesterday's accident...
Of course, the astute reader will note that, in blogging Tiger's accident, we spoke mostly of Hogan.... Perfectly on-brand for this blog, but I'll just leave you thinking about how each of these accidents will ultimately affect how we feel about each public figure. Mostly I see this as an opportunity for the softer, gentler Tiger to share a bit more openly with his fans as he recovers, an opportunity that I'm quite certain will be squandered.
There's other news in the golf world, but today is most certainly not the time for that. We'll make sure to get to that later in the week.
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