Tiger Woods’s mind may be willing but the body is failing

At the rate Tiger Woods is falling apart, physically, he will be lucky to be ambulatory at 49, much less a decade later.

Another tournament, another injury for Tiger Woods, who withdrew from the Honda Classic in the final round citing a recurrence of a back injury. Stuart Franklin / Getty Images

The greatest player of his particular moment in time, old TW from Stanford, rolled up major championships in bunches, defeated the best players of his era with regularity and built a swing that would hold up for decades.

Pretty clearly, with that last reference, we are not talking about Tiger Woods.

This particular citation relates to Tom Watson, a player with such longevity he nearly won the British Open at age 59.

At the rate Woods is falling apart, physically, he will be lucky to be ambulatory at 49, much less a decade later.

Last weekend at the Honda Classic, for the fourth time this decade, Woods withdrew in the middle of a PGA Tour event, citing yet another injury.

In his chase to unseat Jack Nicklaus and his record of 18 major championships, not only is time no longer Woods’s ally, his physical deterioration has become the biggest part of the prognosis picture.

This time, the mid-round walk-off was attributed to a back injury that first cropped up last fall.

A chronic back ailment is not the world No 1’s only nagging issue – so is a realisation that Woods’s majors chase has become even more tenuous.

Woods has won 14 majors – none since 2008 – and is a creaky 38.

The only player who amassed four grand slam titles after reaching that age signpost is Ben Hogan, a late bloomer who also had major health issues in his career. However, Hogan’s health related to a near-fatal car accident, not wear and tear.

In Dubai, Woods said he had spent much of his off-season “working on my body”, lest he experience more ailments.

He lasted three starts, spread over two months, before breaking down. He experienced back and wrist issues last year and played in 18 official events, skipping his own tournament because of the hand injury.

Context is king.

Before his body began to break down in 2010, Woods in his professional career had withdrawn from one PGA Tour event after it had started, when he came down with influenza at Los Angeles.

At this point in his career, Nicklaus had withdrawn from one tournament.

Watson withdrew once in 610 career PGA Tour starts. Phil Mickelson, the player most often linked to Woods among his contemporaries, has withdrawn three times because of injury.

Last weekend marked Woods’s sixth mid-event withdrawal in 297 career starts.

It is not the total that is most alarming – it is the frequency and recency.

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