Tiger Woods’ long-time friend Notah Begay III says the 15-time Major winner is dealing with “zero mobility” in his left ankle as well as “low-back challenges” heading into The Masters next week.
A horror car crash in 2021 almost cost Woods the use of his lower right leg, and several other injuries and surgeries have greatly restricted the California-born player’s mobility on and off the golf course.
Since beginning his latest professional comeback, Woods has only experienced one full four-round tournament in the handful of times he has competed. That arrived at the Hero World Challenge last year, and since then, the 48-year-old has featured in only the PNC Championship and Seminole Pro-Member.
Woods did play one round of the Genesis Invitational on the PGA Tour in February – an event he hosted – but pulled out early in round two with what was described at the time as “flu-like symptoms.”
Expected to tee it up at The Masters next week in what will be his first competitive start in two months – and only his fifth since last April – all eyes are focused on how Woods might fare at a notoriously difficult golf course, both physically and mentally.
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Begay III – who is a former Stanford teammate of Woods – said in a conference call which involved USA Today on Wednesday that the answers to those questions remain “up in the air.”
On the five-time Masters champion, Begay III said: “He’s trying to formulate a strategy and approach that he can work within given the constraints that he’s presented with. And he’s got some constraints. He’s got zero mobility in that left ankle and really has low-back challenges now, which he knew he was going to have.”
Begay revealed that Woods told him at the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship, in which son Charlie was competing, that his ankle “doesn’t move, so something’s going to take the stress” – ultimately leading to lower-back troubles.
“For the past couple months, he’s been trying to find a way to recover. He can play the golf. We always knew the question was going to be ‘can he walk the 72 (holes)?’ That’s still up in the air.
“But can he recover from one round to the next? That’s the biggest question that I really don’t know and he’s not going to know either until he gets out there…
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