NASSAU, Bahamas — Shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday inside a press tent staked in the sand adjacent to the fourth hole at Albany Golf Club, Tiger Woods emerged in public for the first time since his horrific February car crash 281 days ago.
When we last saw Woods in public, he was doing a TV interview with CBS at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Feb. 22, looking exhausted and mumbling parts of his responses.
The next day on the way to a photo shoot, he crashed his SUV into a wooded area, the vehicle flipped and was so badly damaged it seemed like a miracle anyone would survive.
On Tuesday, Woods’ gait was careful and cautious. He looked and moved around like a man older than his 45 years as he carefully walked into the tent to a podium where he took a seat and spoke about the things that have taken place in his life for the past nine months, many of which have been harrowing.
The first takeaway from Woods’ press conference was that he’s done everything he can to try and erase Feb. 23 from his memory. Some people close to Woods believe he’s never even seen an image of the mangled SUV he drove off that Los Angeles road.
“This year is a year I’d like to turn the page on,” Woods said.
Woods was at his most terse in the 38-minute interview when he was asked what he remembered about the day of the crash.
“Yeah, all those answers have been answered in the investigation, so you can read about all that there in the post report,” he said, making a clear effort to shut down any further questions about the crash itself.
The reality is that very few answers came out in the now-closed Los Angeles police report other than the fact it was determined Woods was driving at between 84 and 87 mph in a 45 mph zone when the one-car crash occurred, and he never appeared to have applied the brakes.
Woods revealed he made a concerted effort to avoid watching or listening to any reports of his crash.
“I had friends that insulated me from a lot of the things that were said outside,” Woods said. “I didn’t have my phone. I did have access to a TV and I was just watching sports. I refused to turn on the local channels and news and stuff like that, I didn’t want to go down that road. I wasn’t mentally ready for that road yet.’’
It sounded like he’s still not ready.
The second takeaway from Tuesday was that this recovery is unlike any of the numerous others Woods has faced over the years coming back from five knee and five back surgeries — the latest and most meaningful when he won the 2019 Masters after having a spinal fusion.
“This one’s been much more difficult,” Woods said.
Woods said talk among his doctors about amputation of his right leg “was on the table” in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
“I’m lucky to be alive but also to still have the limb,” he said. “Those are two crucial things. I’m very grateful that someone upstairs was taking care of me, that I’m able to not only be here but also to walk without a prosthesis. There were some really, really tough times. Pain got pretty great at times, but they helped me get through it and I’m on the better side of it, but I’ve still got a long way to go.”
The third takeaway was that Woods is not banking on a full comeback to the sport this time. Clearly keeping goals at a very modest level at the moment, Woods left open the possibility that he may never compete again.
“I’ll put it to you this way: As far as playing at the Tour level, I don’t know when that’s going to happen,” he said. “Now, I’ll play a round here or there, a little hit-and-giggle. That’s something that for a while there it didn’t look like I was going to. Now I’m able to participate in the sport of golf. Now, to what level, I do not know that.”
The fourth takeaway was that, if he never competes again, Woods is at peace with it.
Woods said it’s “very easy” to come to terms with possibly never playing PGA Tour-level golf again “given the fact that I was able to come back after the fusion surgery and do what I did. I got that last major [the 2019 Masters] and I ticked off two more events along the way.”
