LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods said he will be back playing golf on the PGA Tour, he just doesn’t know when.
As Woods, 46, nears the one-year anniversary of the car wreck that nearly cost him his right leg and led to multiple surgeries, he said Wednesday that he’s making progress — but not nearly as fast as he wants.
“I wish I could tell you when I’m playing again,” Woods said during a news conference at the Genesis Invitational, which benefits his foundation. “I want to know, but I don’t. My golf activity has been very limited. I can chip and putt really well and hit short irons very well, but I haven’t done any long stuff seriously. I’m still working.
“I’m still working on the walking part. My foot was a little messed up there about a year ago, so the walking part is something that I’m still working on, working on strength and development in that. It takes time. What’s frustrating is it’s not at my timetable. I want to be at a certain place, but I’m not. I’ve just got to continue working. I’m getting better, yes. But as I said, not at the speed and rate that I would like. You add in the age factor, too. You just don’t quite heal as fast, which is frustrating.”
On Feb. 23, 2021, Woods was involved in a single-car rollover crash not far from Riviera Country Club. The SUV that he was driving crossed through two oncoming lanes, struck a curb and uprooted a tree on a downhill stretch in Rolling Hills Estates, just outside Los Angeles. He was wearing a seatbelt, and officers found him still sitting in the SUV.
Woods was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center by ambulance. He had open fractures in the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula in his right leg. He told reporters at the HERO World Challenge in the Bahamas in early December that doctors nearly had to amputate his leg.
“It’s altered,” Woods said. “My right leg does not look like my left leg.”
Woods said he hasn’t been able to ramp up his golf activity, outside of chipping and putting, because it would require him to put too much weight and torque on his leg.
“I can walk on a treadmill all day, that’s easy,” Woods said. “That’s just straight; there’s no bumps in the road. But walking on a golf course where there’s undulations, I have a long way to go. My leg was not in very good position there about a year ago, and I’ve had to work through a lot of different operations and a lot of different scenarios.
“It’s been tough, but I’ve gotten here, I’ve gotten this far and I still have a long way to go. Each and every day’s a fight and I welcome that fight. Get up in the morning, let’s go a few more rounds.”
