PGA Championship: Tiger Woods’ Stubbornness Creates Uneasy Future

Tiger Woods found himself in familiar territory in Akron. No, not lifting a trophy and smiling for the cameras, but rather on a cart headed toward his courtesy vehicle.

“It happened on the second hole when I hit my second shot, I fell back into the bunker,” Woods said. “I just jarred it, and it’s been spasming ever since. It’s just the whole lower back. I don’t know what happened.”

His second withdrawal from a tournament in six events this season does not come as much of a surprise to people who felt he rushed back into action way too soon.

From the beginning of the season it was clear that Woods was not the same golfer that won five events last season. Even before his injury and surgery, he would fire one good round per tournament, and then fade away in the others.

His first WD of the season came March 2 when, like at the Bridgestone Invitational, he left in a cart in the fourth round when not in contention. He decided not to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament Woods has dominated in the past. He and Palmer have a mutual respect for each other and “The King” expressed his disappointment that the 14-time major winner could not compete.

On March 31, Woods underwent a microdisectomy for a pinched nerve in his back and thus withdrew from the Masters. At media day of his own tournament, the Quicken Loans National, Woods said he was “damned good at video games” but was unsure of his time table for a return. That was May 21.

Woods chipped and putted a week before he hit any full shots. After a few drives, he decided he was good to go for the Quicken Loans National. What followed was a swing fans had not seen before and a missed cut. The swing was abbreviated to prevent further damage to his back. In addition, Woods essentially admitted he came back too soon and you could tell he would have shut it down until the Open Championship had his own tournament not been scheduled.

Why would he come back so soon? After all, Graham DeLaet, a 2013 Presidents Cup selection and 40th ranked player in the world, is six years younger than Woods and he did not play in a tournament for six months after a similar surgery. After shutting it down for the rest of the 2011 season, DeLaet struggled in 2012 as well.

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“When the pain was at its worst,” DeLaet told reporters at the Shell Houston Open, “golf was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to live a regular life. I wanted to be able to play catch with my kids.”

As Woods’ caddie Joe LaCava says, it comes down to Woods’ stubbornness. Woods came back from injury in less than three months, pushing himself to try and make the Ryder Cup and FedEx Cup playoffs. Now neither look attainable.

LaCava is highly respected, having been “on the bag” for Fred Couples for more than 20 years. Couples historically has had his back troubles that have caused him to withdraw from many tournaments either before or during the event.

Now let’s be clear for a second, in the past, I’ll admit that Tiger’s stubbornness and reluctance to quit has served him well in the past. There is no better example than the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines. Woods knew his season was over whether he played the event or not, but banking on his past success, he decided to tee it up knowing he could not make the injury any worse. It panned out and that has been his last major victory.

Next December Woods will be 40. With all of the injuries and early start to his career, it will be an old 40. He has been through countless swing changes and surgeries and now the stubbornness that made him is the thing that will break him.

Sunday Akron saw what Woods has become – a shell of his former self and he has no one to blame but himself.

Now Woods wants to return to action less than a week after a cart ride back to his vehicle. Woods struggled even changing his golf shoes to tennis shoes, yet Monday, there was LaCava walking Valhalla Golf Club in preparation for the PGA Championship.

This is the desperate Woods fans have known and love, but the reasons now are not safe for him. Woods’ own website currently has the tournament on the schedule and is now 10th in the World Golf Ranking, 217th in the FedEx Cup points race, and 69th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings.

Tom Watson, who previously said Woods would be a captain’s selection as long as he is healthy and can play, downgraded Woods’ status to “iffy” for the Ryder Cup. At this point, Woods is playing for a spot at Gleneagles with the FedEx Cup pretty much out of the question.

Woods’ status for the PGA Championship is up in the air and his agent Mark Steinberg stated Monday that the decision may come down to Wednesday evening. If that is the case and he was to play, he would be at a disadvantage since he would not have played any practice rounds. All that is known is that his Tuesday morning press conference has been cancelled. Read into that whatever you will.

As always, Woods is quiet with his status and likely everyone will hear his decision at the same time on his website. Missing two majors in a year would be hard for him and he did win the 1999 PGA Championship at Valhalla, so perhaps he will not need much prep time. Were he to go, he would have a lot to prove to Watson, but even more to himself.

I feel Woods needs to shut it down at least for the year. He rushed back and now is paying the consequences. It goes without saying that golf is better with Woods contending and/or winning.

Want proof? Rory McIlroy, who is very popular among fans and players alike, won the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday but television ratings were 50 percent lower than they were for last year’s event, when Woods won.

Fans are seeing a colossal free fall from the former top ranked player in the world, and it’s a shame. This could have been prevented. Now instead of celebrating the future in McIlroy, we have to linger on the present which are Tiger Woods’ struggles.