Tiger Undergoes Fourth Back Surgery With New Doctor
/I suspect we are all heartened that Tiger did not go back to the doctor credited with the first three (ultimately unsuccessful) back surgeries and, according to TigerWoods.com, this time entrusted his back to Dr. Richard Guyer of the Texas Back Institute.
From the report:
"After he recovers from surgery, he will gradually begin his rehabilitation until he is completely healed," Guyer said. "Once that's accomplished, his workouts will be geared to allowing him to return to competitive golf.
"If you are going to have single-level fusion, the bottom level is the best place for it to occur. Some individuals are born with one less vertebrae, which would be similar to someone who had a single-level fusion," Guyer added.
**Doug Ferguson's AP story rounds up all of the past surgeries and layoffs for Woods, and also features this from agent Mark Steinberg:
“You see him in the Bahamas, and he looked pretty good,” said Mark Steinberg, his agent at Excel Sports Management. “And then you see him in Dubai. It can happen any time. You heard him say two days ago, ‘I have good days and bad days.’ This surgery, we hope, eliminates the bad days.”
Jeff Babineau at Golfweek is not seeing how this is anything but fatal news to Woods's comeback hopes.
But the stark reality is this: Woods knows that every day he is not competing on the PGA Tour is one more milepost farther away. And now he sits six more months away from just starting up again. It’s a brutal cycle. These kids today taking his place at the big events are good, very good, and they’re fearless, mostly because they learned from the best.
