Tiger Woods has played in just 11 worldwide events since the serious car crash in 2021 resulted in significant injuries to his lower right leg, ankle and foot.
A photo that appeared on Monday while Woods was watching his son, Charlie, at the U.S. Junior Amateur, appeared to reveal the scarring from what likely has been multiple surgeries.
Tiger Woods is walking the course at the US Junior without his leg sleeve. The scar on his leg is massive and probably helps explain the difficulty he’s had. @golfnjokes pic.twitter.com/t552JrCDdg
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) July 22, 2024
Woods was involved in a single-car rollover accident outside of Los Angeles on Feb. 23, 2021. According to Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Woods suffered comminuted open fractures to the upper and lower sections of his right leg, as well as significant trauma to his right ankle.
Doctors inserted a rod, screws and pins to stabilize Woods’ leg, Mahajan said in a statement.
Woods likely had surgeries since that time. After making the cut but withdrawing after the third round of the 2022 PGA Championship, Woods likely had another surgery to deal with a protruding pin that he had described to fellow Tour player Jason Day. He returned to play at the British Open at St Andrews, where he missed the cut
Last year, Woods had surgery on his right ankle following the Masters and did not play again until the Hero World Challenge in December, where he completed 72 holes and finished 18th out of 20 players.
This year, Woods played five times, withdrawing during the second round of the Genesis Invitational, before finishing 60th at the Masters and then missing the cut at the remaining three majors, including last week at Royal Troon.
Afterward, Woods expressed optimism that he would continue to get better and expressed regret at not being able to play more.
“I've gotten better, even though my results really haven't shown it, but physically I've gotten better, which is great,’’ he said. “I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again.’’
Woods was in Michigan to watch his son at Oakland Hills Country Club where he was competing in the stroke-play portion of the Junior, a tournament Tiger won three times.
The 15-time major champion typically wears a long compression sock when in shorts.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Photos Surface of Tiger Woods Without Sleeve on Injured Leg.
