Friday, February 3, 2017

Tiger's back ...

... is bothering him again.

The word out of Dubai is Woods pulled out of the Dubai Desert Classic after suffering back spasms Thursday evening, and here we go, here we go. It took no particular genius, or even particular smarts, to predict that sooner or later the back would start acting up again. Turns out "sooner" was the way to go in the office pool.

His comeback has barely begun, and the back is an issue again. Well, duh. When you're 41 years old and you're a professional golfer with back issues on your resume, these things will happen. Just ask Freddy Couples, whose own career was short-circuited by back problems.

Of course, Woods' agent, says the problem is unrelated to the nerve issues that precipitated Woods' three recent back surgeries. But if it's the back, pretty much everything is related. Which is why we should expect more of this rather than less going forward.

In the meantime, Woods' comeback has so far produced a missed cut at Torrey Pines and an opening 77, with five bogeys and zero birdies, in Dubai. Expect more of this going forward, too -- unless, or until, Woods finally decides enough is enough and hangs it up.

He is, after all, already the greatest player of his era, if not ever. It's unlikely anything he does now is going to add to that. So why continue to play regularly in what seems certain to be a steadily diminishing capacity?


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