Tiger Woods entered the 2019 Masters as one of the favorites to win, and he put himself in a solid position after nine holes at 1-under par. It’s easy to forget that as recently as 24 months ago, Woods believed that he may never play competitive golf again.
Woods opened his 2017 PGA Tour season by missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, and he flew to Dubai to play the very next week. He struggled through an opening-round 77 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and then withdrew due to back issues – which had become very severe. Woods was unable to play in the 2017 Masters, but he did make the journey to Augusta to attend the Champions Dinner that year. Woods revealed this week that he “had to get a nerve block” to be able to walk at the time, and he immediately flew to see a specialist following the dinner.
Via ESPN:
“I was done at that particular time…. In order to actually come to the dinner, I had to get a nerve block just to be able to walk and come to the dinner. It meant so much to me to be part of the Masters and come to the Champions Diner. I didn’t want to miss it. It was tough and uncomfortable. I ended up going to England that night, saw a specialist there, [and] they recommended unfortunately for me the only way to get rid of the pain I was living in was to have the spinal fusion surgery. So I decided to go to Dr. Richard Guyer in Texas and had the surgery.”
Just a few weeks later, Woods had a spinal fusion surgery – which eventually allowed him to return at the 2017 Hero World Challenge in December. One year after not being able to walk without the aid of a medical procedure, Tiger was back at Augusta as a player, and recorded a T32 finish.
