Tiger Woods And The Tough Choice In Front Of Him

It has been 37 days since Tiger Woods underwent his fourth, yes fourth, back surgery.

Woods hasn’t emerged from The Fortress Of Solitude up there on Jupiter Island.  He was not in Las Vegas last weekend for his all-important Tiger Jam 2017, the major fundraiser for his foundation.

But it was time for an update and The Great Stiney, aka, Mark Steinberg, got on the horn to Eldrick and let him know that perhaps he might throw something on the old Tiger Woods website, just to let his fans know he was alive and kicking and that the myth of him winning more majors is still alive.

There’s also a matter of the good folks at Bridgestone, Monster Energy and TaylorMade who have forked over millions of dollars for the privilege of telling the golfing public that Tiger Woods plays with their stuff and drinks their stuff.

Now there’s a great reason to go out and buy their stuff.  The world’s most famous rehabber thinks their stuff is great, at least as long as the checks keep clearing.

The news really is good as far as Tiger Woods is concerned.

“It’s hard to express how much better I feel.”

That’s the first of the news.

“Instant nerve relief, I haven’t felt this good in years.”

That’s the next phrase to digest.

“That’s the important thing — that I can have a life again.”

That’s something to pay attention to.

Now here’s where it gets interesting:

“I want to say unequivocally, I want to play professional golf again.”

That’s the part we want to address.

That’s the part of this health update that was put out there for those companies who are stroking those big checks to Woods because they figured it would be great to see their stuff on television, knowing the cameras are always on Woods no matter how he plays.

Woods did continue the Woods habit of not giving any details.

No timeline, no plan, no nothing.

Then there was the part of this that seemed to contradict that “I want to play professional golf again” stuff.

“All I can do is take it day-to-day.”

Woods added that he is “concentrating on short-term goals, not looking ahead.”

Well, if he’s telling all those sponsors and fans that he is darn set on playing professional golf again, well, that certainly sounds like he IS looking ahead to somewhere down road.

“There’s no hurry.”

That’s something to consider as well.

Woods said it might be another three months before he can even turn his torso and golf involves a high-degree of torso-turning.

The real dilemma for Woods will be that “pain-free” part of the equation.

Wood became a 14-time major champion and the dominant force on the PGA Tour by hitting tens of thousands of golf balls.  He was a range-rat, ball-beater.  He out-worked everyone then out-performed them on the biggest stages.

He’s also had as many major swing changes as back surgeries now.

Which leads us back to that “unequivocally” stuff.

That one phrase tells us Woods is dead-set on playing again, but would he settle for playing at a level far below the standards he set 15 years ago?

Does he want to risk the “pain free” part of his life.

He’s got some really tough answers ahead of him over the next year or so.

Really tough.

Pain free or showing up on tour again?

A lot to think about.

For now, he does have a lot of time on his hands to ponder his future.