So, two weeks into The Comeback, just a fortnight into what he confirmed represented The Big Augusta Build-Up, and Tiger Woods’s future is less clear than it was before he first struck a ball in anger in 2017.
The former world No 1, strangled by uncertainty and stymied for almost 18 months following a third back operation, withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Friday, an hour before he was due to tee off on his second round.
If Thursday morning was fraught, when Woods shot a 5-over par 77 to sit 121st in the 132-man field, then that evening proved fatal — at least as far as this week was concerned.
Most certainly, it was not expected. Woods protested post-round on Thursday that he “wasn’t in pain at all” despite shuffling gingerly around the Majlis Course for 18 holes.
He even considered, however misguided it sounded, winning a third Dallah trophy. From 12 shots back. But his back put pay to that.
Apparently, his lower back went into spasm sometime after dinner, then did not respond to immediate treatment or attention again early Friday. Mark Steinberg, Woods’s long-time manager, soon related that it was not the nerve pain that has affected his client in the past, that the short-term prognosis was Woods “hopes he’ll be strong”.
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But what happens when his main strength, to win through his formidable talent or his sheer force of will, is evidently no longer there?
It is nearly nine years removed from Woods’s victory at the 2008 US Open, the last of his 14 majors. It is going on four years since his most recent tournament triumph of any kind. Between then and now, three back surgeries.
For a guy ranked 666th in the world, the devil is in the detail. Last week’s Farmers Insurance Open was supposed to mark the beginning of his eagerly awaited return, where Woods planned to play four events in five weeks to help get in shape for April’s US Masters.
Yet he has gone three for eight: three rounds from a possible eight, less than half the targeted output halfway through that quartet. A missed cut at Torrey Pines, where he had won eight times previously, and a WD at Emirates Golf Club, where he had just posted his highest single-day score in 29 attempts.
Of course, patience and perspective are required. Woods spent 15 months out, needs time to work his way back to tournament fitness and form, and everything he does remains under the full glare of the spotlight. Woods claimed in Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference that he likes “to consider myself a player and a guy that is playing out here and competing”, but he is far from simply one of the pack. The scrutiny and the scaremongering persist.
Take the following day in Dubai, where hefty galleries followed his every move irrespective of his troubles; where playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick requested post-round that he keep his scorecard simply because Woods had signed it; where the media crowded around the American to discover and dissect exactly what had gone wrong. To his credit, Woods gave his time.
However, the latest setback makes it impossible not to attach a negative bent. Woods is some way from where he wanted to be, both in terms of his game and, at this moment, his health.
As Brandel Chamblee, the former tour professional and now respected Golf Channel analyst put it on Thursday night, Woods “looks like the oldest 41-year-old in the history of the game”.
For now, the appropriately named Genesis Open and the Honda Classic form the next stops on an increasingly flagging comeback tour, with the Riviera event scheduled for February 16. Given the developments in Dubai, that feels a long way away.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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