Tiger Woods’ future career takes another hit after a third back procedure

Tiger Woods’ future career prospects, short-term, long-term, and everything in between, took another hit this week when he had to have yet another back procedure. Woods made the usual late Friday afternoon announcement on his own website, revealing that he had a “follow-up procedure” from his September microdiscectomy surgery. This procedure was done on Wednesday to “relieve discomfort” in Tiger’s back, an area of his body that, in the last two years, has become the biggest threat to ending his career.

The September surgery blindsided the golf world, and probably Woods and his camp too. Tiger had showed little sign of back trouble all summer, stating he only felt some pain in his hip during his last start in Greensboro in mid-August. But there was no wincing and grimacing upon impact like we saw in 2014 when Tiger underwent his first microdiscectomy in late March.

Tiger may have had a horrendous 2015 season on the course but the back, by all accounts, was in fine working order and the troubles of the previous season were gone.

The 2014 surgery put him out almost four months, and even then he said he came back sooner than he should have in order to play his own event, the Quicken Loans National. Before he made the decision to have that first back surgery in March 2014, Woods fully understood that this was an injury and area of his body that threatened his career in a different way from all his previous knee troubles. Here he is in March 2014 at Doral:

The will to win hasn’t changed. It’s physically, am I able to do it. There are times when I’ve learned this through the injuries that I’ve had. A bad back is something that is no joke.

When I had my injuries over the years, it was always after impact. So it’s fine; the ball’s gone. It’s going to hurt like hell, but the ball’s gone. So I can do my job and deliver the club and deliver the final moment to the ball and hit the shot I want to hit. It’s just going to hurt like hell afterwards. I played that way for years.

But with the back, it’s a totally different deal. There are certain moments, certain movements you just can’t do. That’s one of the things I’ve started to learn about this type of injury; it’s very different.

Woods made his first public appearance last week in Mexico at the new America’s Cup event and made it sound like the recovery time for the second microdiscectomy would be much longer.

“I’ll start my rehab soon,” he said last week. “It’s a long and tedious rehab. Last time, it took me a very long time to come back. Some players on tour they’ve had it done and and it’s taken for them to be pain-free over a year.”

Woods said it would take “months and months of hard work” to regain his explosiveness and fully recover into a competitive and healthy golfer. It’s the end of October, but this follow-up procedure puts the Masters in doubt.

That all-important early-April tournament may have already been in doubt listening to the way Tiger framed his rehab last week. In fact, much of the 2016 season sounded in question. Tiger made the usual rote vow in Friday’s announcement that he would “be back” and competing despite this latest setback. But with these persistent back troubles and three procedures in the last two years, his ability to have a career again, and not just 2016, is the larger concern.

SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champ (2012)