Golf star Tiger Woods will “never” again play the sport full time after a car accident earlier this year left him severely injured, though he still hopes to “click off a tournament here or there,” he said in an interview published Monday in Golf Digest.
Comparing the sport to scaling the world’s tallest mountain, Woods noted that after a previous back surgery, he had to “climb Mt. Everest one more time. I had to do it, and I did. I don’t think I’ll have the body to climb Mt. Everest, and that’s okay. I can still participate in the game of golf.”
Woods, 45, fractured the tibia and fibula in his right leg after a Feb. 23 crash in suburban Los Angeles.
Woods had been traveling more than 80 mph when he lost control of the Genesis SUV and plowed into a tree. There were no signs Woods was impaired, authorities said, and no charges were filed.
Woods, who has netted 82 tournaments in a 25-year career, including five Masters, was charged with a DUI in 2017. Soon after, he checked himself into a clinic for prescription drug abuse.
In the February crash, authorities believe Woods tried to pump the brakes but accidentally gunned the accelerator. The SUV was going 75 mph when it hit the tree and went airborne.
Woods faced the possibility of amputation after being taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “Golf Digest” reported.
At one point, Woods says he wasn’t sure “if I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” he told the magazine, adding that he still has “so far to go” rehabilitating his leg.
“I’m not even at the halfway point yet,” he said.
Tim Stelloh
