Tiger Woods A Doubt For The Masters After Surgery

The 15-time Major winner has undergone a fifth back surgery

Tiger Woods A Doubt For The Masters After Surgery
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The 15-time Major winner has undergone a fifth back surgery

Tiger Woods A Doubt For The Masters After Surgery

Tiger Woods looks to be a doubt for the Masters in April after it was announced that he had undergone a fifth surgery on his back.

The 15-time Major winner and five-time Masters champion has recently had a microdiscectomy procedure to remove a pressurised disc that was pinching his nerve.

Woods was said to be in pain during December's PNC Championship, where he and his son Charlie finished in 7th position.

The 45-year-old is out of both the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines next week and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera next month, which he has confirmed that he will attend as host.

However the elephant in the room is The Masters, which is now less than 10 weeks away.

It looks very unlikely that Woods will be able to have a tune-up before Augusta and it could well be that he has to sit out the year's first Major.

"Tiger has recently undergone a microdiscectomy procedure to remove a pressurized disc fragment that was pinching his nerve after experience discomfort during the PNC Championship," an official statement read.

"His doctors and their team have determined it to be successful and expect him to make a full recovery."

"I look forward to begin training and am focused on getting back out on Tour," Woods said.

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Woods' last back surgery came in 2017 when he had a spinal fusion after withdrawing from the Dubai Desert Classic.

The operation essentially prolonged his career, with Nick Faldo revealing that Woods said he thought he would never play golf again.

The spinal fusion allowed him to continue to compete and he has won three times on the PGA Tour since the procedure, including at the 2019 Masters.

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV