Tiger Woods Is Pain Free, Returns To Tournament Golf
Tiger Woods said Tuesday before his annual golf tournament at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD that he is pain-free for the first time in about two years, and he intends to play in the Open Championship in July.
In late March, Woods underwent underwent surgery for a pinched nerve in his back. His return to tournament golf at the Quicken Loans National, is in partnership with the Tiger Woods Foundation reported ESPN.
“If this wasn’t the foundation and our impact that we can have with kids, I probably would not have played,” Woods said. “our goal was the British Open.”
Woods is a 14-time major winner, but hasn’t won one since the 2008 U.S. Open. He hasn’t won any tournament in 13 months. He missed the Masters and the U.S. Open this year due to the surgery.
“I’m actually probably ahead of schedule, where everyone thought I would be at,” Woods said. “It has been a very, very long time, probably a good two years since I’ve felt this way.”
Woods said there was a minimal risk of re-injuring his back.
“Obviously, I’m going to get stronger as time goes on,” he said. “Just like it is with every round we play, we can hit behind a tree root and damage something, awkward lies, the little knickknack things that have happened to us that have played at this level. I’m no different in that regard.”
During his rehabilitation, Woods worked with coach Sean Foley to make some tweaks to his swing.
“We look at it on video, and what I’m feeling I’m doing, it looks the same as it did before,” he said. “I probably may not go at it as hard on all shots.”
The 38-year-old Woods has 79 career wins, which is second most in PGA Tour history just behind Sam Snead who had 82.
As previously reported in The inquisitr, Woods thinks he can win many more tournaments.
“Expectations don’t change. That’s (winning) the ultimate goal,” Woods said. “It’s just that it’s going to be a little bit harder this time. I just haven’t had the amount of prep and rep that I would like, but I’m good enough to play and I’m going to give it a go” according to Yahoo.
Woods visited the White House on Tuesday at a ceremony to honor the 2013 U.S. Presidents Cup team win, and met with President Obama.
“I’ve been there several times. It’s always an interesting experience,” Woods said. He mentioned one visit when Obama kept important people waiting because he wanted to talk sports.
“I felt awful that I’m holding up a Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting because he wanted to talk sports,” Woods said.
[Image via Bing]
