Tiger Woods Injury Could Jeopardize His 2012 Masters

By Ryan Wooden

With the blimp camera affixed on a golf cart carving its way back towards the player’s parking lot, the golf world–in smaller part the world in general– had its attention solely on Tiger Woods and his “left leg.” From behind the tinted windows of his black Mercedes, Tiger Woods had to have been just as concerned.

As it turns out, left leg translated into an Achilles injury that plagued Woods throughout the round and eventually caused the grimace that followed Tiger uncorking a 321-yard drive and preceded his shady exit from the WGC-Cadillac World Championship. Beyond that, information is as evasive as the circumstances surrounding Tiger Woods’ exit.

The extent of the Tiger Woods injury is yet unknown. It may have been nothing more than a precautionary measure, but then again, it may have been much more.

The aging Woods had beefed up his schedule this month in an effort to condition his game for next month’s Masters, and also to break a winless streak on the PGA Tour that extends back to September of 2009. Perhaps, the heavy workload was literally too much weight to bare for Tiger, or maybe his withdrawal was just Tiger acquiescing an overloaded calendar.

Either way, you have to question what this means for Woods and for golf leading into the Masters. He was scheduled to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in two weeks and obviously in the Masters the first week of April, but that all appears as if it were written in pencil now.

Tiger Woods has now had four knee surgeries, and this is the second time in less than a year that an Achilles injury appears as if it will cost the 36-year old superstar time, and it’s cause for reasonable concern regarding Woods future. Swing coach Sean Foley has been tasked with rebuilding Tiger’s swing with health in mind, but at this point you have to wonder if that’s even possible.

Tiger could easily qualify as injury-prone at this point, and if his latest setback is of any consequence it will be interesting to see if the damage to his game would be irreparable. Woods had made significant strides over the last several weeks on tour. At times it appeared as if he were on a collision course with victory in the near future, possibly even as soon as the Masters, but that’s all in jeopardy now.

The resurgence which seemed so inevitable a few days ago once again seems distant, and despite it being only three weeks away, it feels like the Masters is an eternity away. Tiger will be evaluated medically sometime today, but it’s safe to say that he’ll have to pass millions of individual “look tests” whenever he does return, but as far as golf is concerned, the sooner the better.

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