Anyone who knows Tiger Woods also knows how dominant he used to be on the greens. Despite enduring multiple injuries and undergoing several surgeries from 1994 to 2023, Woods has 82 PGA Tour and 15 major wins to his name. Almost every victory of the GOAT comes with a story, but who would have thought the anecdote of the 2018 TOUR Championship would be a heart-wrenching one?
Woods won the event beautifully and was taken aback by the love he received for his 80th win from fans on the course. But after securing the victory, he shared the challenges he faced throughout the tournament, and trust us, you wouldn’t believe that he won, despite going through so much.
What did Tiger Woods say about the 2018 TOUR Championship?
As per Woods, this story holds a different significance and is possibly heavier than his first victory at the Masters in 1997. He said, “It’s certainly up there with all the major championships I’ve won, Players, World Golf Championships. But this is under different circumstances.”
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But how were the circumstances any different? Well, he shared, “The people who are close to me saw the struggles and what I was going through… The low point was not knowing if I’d ever be able to live pain-free again. Am I going to be able to sit, stand, walk, lay down without feeling the pain that I was in?” as revealed in the Golf Digest.
Because of unfortunate injuries and fourth-back surgery in 2017, the golfer himself wasn’t sure whether he would lead a pain-free life. He felt restless during the tournament and telling how bad it got, he revealed, “I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t lay down without feeling the pain in my back and my leg.” Despite the struggle, the 48-year-old preserved and continued to play with only one thing on his mind: “golf swing.”
USA Today via Reuters
“But if I could somehow piece together a golf swing, I felt like I could do it. My hands are good enough, and I just didn’t know if I could piece together a golf swing. Somehow, I was able to do that, and here we are,” said Tiger Woods. Although Woods didn’t have any injuries or surgery in 2018, he was still in pain. While the golfer navigated through the 2018 TOUR Championship, the horrors related to his body didn’t stop there.
In 2019, the golfer won his fifth Masters title as well as the ZOZO Championship, marking his 81st and 82nd win. In August 2019, he underwent arthroscopic surgery for minor ligament issues, marking his fifth knee surgery. After recovering, he returned to the greens and claimed the 2020 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. While it might be the last event he won ever since it certainly wasn’t the end of his struggles with his body.
In 2021, Woods went on to have his fifth microdiscectomy on his back in January to remove a bulging disc. Just a month later, the golfer met with a near-fatal car crash which almost shattered his leg. The plight has just increased since. In 2023, he participated in Masters, only to withdraw after making the cut as a lingering ankle issue came back to haunt him again. Two weeks after withdrawal, he went through a subtalar fusion to fix his right ankle. He was then out of the greens for the year and returned in the end to compete in the PNC
