There comes a time in every athlete’s life when the body begins to voice its opinion.
There is a time when the body first starts to whisper: “How much longer can we do this?”
Then the whisper becomes louder: “I’m not sure we can go today.”
Eventually, a body can start screaming like an angry protester: “Stop this nonsense, it hurts, stop, please!”
Tiger Woods’ body has been talking to him for quite a while now and it is becoming more and more insistent.
How long do you think you can keep this up? Yeah, that’s exactly what it might be saying, today, right now.
Tiger Woods’ ongoing comeback has become something like the movie “Groundhog Day.”
It’s a continuous replay: suffer injury, rehab for lengthy period of time, attempt comeback, suffer injury, start over again.
That’s what the professional golf life of Eldrick Tont Woods has become — his own version of Groundhog Day.
Woods was supposed to be making his glorious return to Los Angeles this week after a 10 year absence.
It’s not happening. Yes, he will be there, strictly in a ceremonious capacity, glad-handing the right people and showing some gratitude that people like his Tiger Woods Foundation and all that it does for young people.
In the latest twist, the latest footnote in all of this, Woods couldn’t even make a Wednesday press conference that was scheduled, giving him a platform to talk about his foundation and show a little Tiger Woods support for name sponsor Genesis. Evidently his body told him he couldn’t sit too long at the table.
This was supposed to be his third appearance in four weeks, what seemed an overly-ambitious schedule at the time, a lot of golf for a guy with an iffy back. The fact that he made it all four days back in December, back in the Bahamas, had a lot of optimism flowing in the world of golf.
Things didn’t go as planned at Torrey Pines. He was out after 36 holes, the cool weather and wet conditions didn’t help a guy who has to take hours to prepare before a round of golf these days.
It all fell apart the following week in Dubai. It started with a long plane trip and ended with Woods overcome by back spasms before he could even tee it up on day two over there in the desert. You could sense it in round one as he walked stiffly, had trouble getting in and out of some bunkers and basically couldn’t control very many shots the way he wanted.
He was hoping to play in the Honda next week, hoping he’d have 16 rounds of highly competitive golf to his credit. He found out that hope is your worst enemy in the world of comebacks.
Woods will not be at PGA National, nor will he be at the Valspar outside Tampa at the very difficult Innisbrook track. It’s not his kinda course.
If, and it is a huge “IF” — if Woods is going to try and play at all before the Masters, it would have to be at Bay Hill, another course where he used to dominate. That word “if” haunts him these days. There are no certainties when it comes to the health of Tiger Woods.
Never understood how the oddsmakers like to post him among the favorites at The Masters. After his unimpressive Bahamas outing, some had him at 20/1 to win at Augusta National. These days, it’s more like 100 to 1.
Can’t tell you if Tiger Woods is listening to what his body is telling him. That’s something he has to do. But the voice of that body is getting louder and if you listen closely, you can probably hear it, even if Tiger won’t.
It’s getting more insistent, and ornery to boot.
It just doesn’t want to go anymore, not lately and it has had a long winter’s nap.
Competitive golf and Tiger Woods’ body just don’t appear to be a very good match anymore.
It’s a shame, the comeback attempt will no doubt continue in some form.
But at some point, Woods will have to listen to what his body is telling him.
