Tiger Woods has suffered a setback with his back, revealing on Tuesday that he recently had a fifth surgery that prevents him from starting the year until after the West Coast Swing on the PGA Tour.
Woods will not play next week in the Farmers Insurance Open in Torrey Pines, which he won seven times, most recently in 2013. He also won the US Open in 2008 in Torrey Pines, where the US Open will be held again in June.
He will also miss the Genesis Invitational on February 18-21 in Riviera, where he will host the tournament.
In a statement from its TGR Foundation, which Woods also tweeted, he didn’t say when he had the microdiscetomy. It was to remove a pressurized disc fragment that gave him nerve pain during last month’s PNC Championship he played with 11-year-old son Charlie.
Doctors said the surgery was a success and predicted a full recovery, the statement said.
“I’m looking forward to starting training and concentrating on going on tour again,” said Woods.
The year Woods last won at Torrey Pines, back problems started to surface. He had his first microdisectomy just before the 2014 Masters, then got two more in September and October 2015.
The fourth surgery in April 2017 was a major operation to fuse his lower back. Woods’ return was successful, leading to a win in the 2018 Tour Championship – his first in five years – and he closed it off by winning the Masters in 2019, his 15th major and his first in 11 years.
When he won the Zozo Championship in Japan in the fall of 2019, he leveled Sam Snead’s record of career victory with No. 82, and the record seemed to be only a matter of time. But he was never in a serious battle last year, missing a full month with a minor glitch before golf was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
When he returned in July, he finished no better than a tie for 37th place at the PGA Championship in seven tournaments he played. In six of those events where he made the cut, he finished 107 shots from the lead together.
He turned 45 at the end of last year and his surgery count has now risen to 10 – five on his left knee, five on his back.
Woods said, after being 38th in his Masters title defense, he has days that are more difficult than others.
“My body just has times when it just doesn’t work like it used to,” he said in November. “No matter how hard I try, things just don’t work like they used to, and no matter how much I push and demand from this body, sometimes it just doesn’t work. Yes, it is sometimes more difficult than others to be motivated.
“Yeah, because things just hurt and have to do with things I’ve never dealt with before.”
He played the PNC Championship with his son and they finished seventh.
Woods plans to be with Riviera in his role as host of the tournament. The statement only said he would miss Torrey Pines and Riviera. He hasn’t been that predictable in recent years with his schedule leading up to the Masters on April 8-11.
The World Golf Championships event recently played in Mexico has moved to Florida and follows the West Coast Swing. Then it’s Bay Hill, where Woods has won eight times (all before his back surgeries) but skipped the past two years, and The Players Championship. After that there are three more tournaments for the Masters.