Tiger Woods Still Injured, Golf Fans Still Waiting

No Claret Jug this year

Well, there’s another Tiger-less major coming up in two weeks.  Sigh.  Woods announced today that he’ll be sitting out of the British Open.  I can say with authority that Rory McIlroy’s coming-out party at the U.S. Open last month was a great thing for golf because a Woods comeback in 2011 is looking less and less likely.  Many people are wondering why Tiger doesn’t just throw in the towel on the year.  He’s clearly in uncharted waters right now.  Not that he’s never gone through injuries, rather he’s never handled them this way.  I use the plural because he’s suffering from a sprained MCL and a sprained Achilles.  Having two injuries didn’t stop him at Torrey Pines in 2008.  Perhaps at the age of 36, his doctors have finally reached him.

Did I jinx him with the first article I ever wrote for my blog?  No…no, no.  I may be the superstitious type when it comes to these things, but that’s just crazy.  Too far out there, man.  Although, in my U.S. Open preview article I made a vigorous case for Tiger to win it, only to discover a few days later that he’d withdrawn from competition.  At least this time I waited to write my preview article.

Anyway, one has got to give credit (most of all his doctors) to Tiger Woods for not using his classic pain tolerance test as the bar to return to competition or not.  It appears that now he’s actually listening to professional medical people’s recommendations.  So yeah, it’s pretty annoying that we get so excited when he makes an appearance or posts on his website, only to find out he’s sitting out of the next tournament on his schedule.  But since he’s never handled being injured in this way, I’ll cut him some slack.

Why hasn’t he shut the door on 2011 completely?  Come on, it’s not that hard.  This is Tiger Woods were talking about.  He’s addicted to playing in majors, playing when it matters most.  That’s right addicted – like Robin Williams on coke, Snoop Dogg on pot, Lindsay Lohan on going to rehab.  This is why he kept playing in the Masters in April, even though he knew he injured himself on the 17^th hole during the second round.  By the way, he slipped on the pine needles trying to hit a shot out from under the famous Eisenhower Tree.  Somewhere, Ike is shaking his fist, as he purportedly did many times while playing that very hole. 

"Hah! Oh Arnie, being President isn't that hard!"

Quick tangent.  After the archives were opened on Eisenhower’s presidency, historians discovered that he wasn’t such a bad president after all.  It turns out that he was a fabulous administrator, very adept at placing capable people below him and delegating responsibilities.  He got a little practice at doing so when he planned that whole D-Day thing.  What most people don’t understand, especially people who don’t golf, is that he actually did this so he could go golfing, instead of having to make decisions all the time.  That’s how he was able to squeeze in approximately 800 rounds of golf during eight years of being President.  For the mathematically disinclined, that’s 100 rounds per year.  If Obama reads this article, he’ll say, “Man, being President in the fifties probably kicked ass.” Ike would agree.

Back to Tiger.  Had he withdrawn from the Masters, it would have been a huge let down.  We wouldn’t have seen that front nine on Sunday that made us believe he can make the improbable comeback.  At least he injured himself while trying to make a difficult shot, in the end I’m OK with that.  Frenchman Thomas Levet, on the other hand, might also miss the British Open due to injury.  However, he suffered this injury (fractured shin) from jumping into the lake at Le Golf National after winning the French Open.  Woods can’t shut it down for 2011 because there’s still the PGA Championship in August, the year’s final major.

I don’t see much changing.  From the way he sounds, it’s definitely a very likely possibility that he won’t play in the PGA either.  My guess is he’s holding out on the chance that his recovery speeds up and he’s able to give it a go.  There’s no telling how he’ll play because he’s only been putting.  That’s still a good thing, as his decline has been most obvious on the greens.  We don’t know when he’ll be able to make the call on the PGA, or returning in general.  I don’t take Tiger as the type of athlete who reads the papers, so to speak.  But he can’t be completely insulated from the barrage of comments like “he’s done” and “he’ll never win another major, much less reach Nicklaus.”

If his fans were offended by the instantaneous comparisons of McIlroy and Woods after Rory won the U.S. Open, I can’t imagine the rage Tiger felt.  So, all in all, he’s got plenty of mental motivation.  I’m sure he wanted to go across the pond, waltz into Rory’s house, and lay down a classic Woods shellacking.  After all, Tiger has three times as many British Open titles as McIlroy has majors.  But obviously, that’s all side talk until he can get healthy again.  For now, we’re just going to have to throw a bookmark in the Woods saga.  But I still think the best has yet to come.  Come on, Tiger, America loves a comeback. 

Sources and Photo Credits: PGA.com, midwestsportsfans.com, bleacherreport.com