Didn’t he die of acne at one point?
He looks like he’s going to be in for a long rehab. His left leg, and from what I can see even his left thigh, both look atrophied. Even his forearms look thicker than his thigh and leg.
Nice. Good to see him with a smile. I predict a Top 100 world ranking for Tiger by the end of 2022.
Yeah, as someone who tore both Achilles (at different times), I can attest that the calves are pretty much gone in about 2 weeks. But they also come back pretty close to normal after about a year.
It’ll be interesting to see if he can pull something like that off. I have no doubt as to his dedication and competitiveness; Woods is up there with people like Michael Jordan on that extreme driven-ness.
And, despite effectively losing three entire golf seasons to injury (2015-2017), he did well in the rankings the past three years - his year-end world rankings were #13 (2018), #6 (2019), and #41 (2020), and that’s despite being in his early 40s, and coming off of numerous, serious injuries, particularly to his back.
On the other hand, he’s now dealing with severe injuries to both of his legs, which will likely take a long time to rehabilitate, and he may or may not ever return to his previous level of mobility with them. He’ll also be 47 at the end of 2022, and even if he hadn’t been in the car wreck, the march of time, and his continuing difficulties with his back, would have sooner or later (and probably sooner) cost him his ability to play golf at a world-class level.
We also do not know his overall situation with pain, medication, and “medication”. That can stop almost anyone cold. Many a competitive athlete has lost the contest w pain meds. Not necessarily right away, but it’s a relentless foe for some folks. And Woods arguably has prior form on substance abuse.
Very true on both his age, and if he can physically swing a gold club thousands of times a week. My “prediction” is at least partially-based on wishful thinking. The one big caveat is, of course, if he attempts a comeback at all. If he begins entering PGA tournaments, that will give us a pretty good clue on whether he thinks he can win again.