Tiger Woods injury and surgery timeline: Golf career review

Tiger Woods has experienced a long list of injuries and surgeries

Feb. 24, 2021 1:26 PM PT

Tiger Woods suffered serious leg injuries during a car accident Tuesday near Rancho Palos Verdes. Here’s a look at the 45-year-old golfer’s injury history:

Achilles’ tendon

Woods tore his right Achilles’ tendon in December 2008, although he did not disclose the injury until the 2010 Masters. Following struggles with his left Achilles’ in 2011, Woods withdrew from the final round of the 2012 WGC-Cadillac Championship with an injury to the same tendon.

Back

Back spasms caused Woods to drop to his hands and knees, and at times he needed to lean on his putter to lift his ball out of the hole, during the final round of the 2013 Barclays. But he still managed to finish a stroke behind winner Adam Scott. Woods cited similar issues when he withdrew from the final round of the Honda Classic in March 2014. He missed the Masters for the first time in his career the following month after undergoing surgery for a pinched nerve in his back.

After tweaking his back at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, Woods failed to make the cut at the PGA Championship, only the fourth time he had done so at a major tournament. He took the next several months off.

A miserable 2015 followed, with Woods missing the cut in three of the four majors before having a second back surgery in September and a follow-up procedure in October. He played in one event over the next two seasons, undergoing a fourth back surgery in April 2017.

Following speculation that he might not be able to play again, Woods launched a comeback that included a victory at the 2019 Masters, his first major championship in 11 years.

He revealed earlier this year that he had undergone a fifth back surgery, a microdiscectomy procedure to remove a pressurized disk fragment that was pinching a nerve. He said last weekend his goal was to play in the Masters in April.

Elbow

Woods missed the 2013 AT&T National with a strained elbow.

Knees

After surgeries to remove benign growths from his left knee in 1994 and 2002, Woods ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee in July 2007. He chose not to have surgery and went on to win four more PGA tournaments that year, including the PGA Championship.

The following April, two days after a runner-up finish at the Masters, Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage on his left knee. Six weeks later, he played through obvious pain to win the U.S. Open, then had season-ending ACL surgery the following week.

He finished tied for fourth at the 2011 Masters despite spraining a medial collateral ligament sprain in his left knee and straining his left Achilles’ tendon. A month later, he withdrew after nine holes at the Players Championship and missed the next three months.

Woods had surgery to repair minor ligament damage in his left knee in August 2019.

Legs

Woods suffered multiple leg injuries when he crashed his SUV near Rancho Palos Verdes on Tuesday morning, shattering one of his ankles, according to a source familiar with his treatment, and suffering two leg fractures. During emergency surgery, doctors inserted a rod into his leg and placed screws into his foot and ankle.

Neck

Woods suffered a sore neck and cuts to his lips in a single-car accident in his neighborhood near Orlando in 2009. He withdrew from the final round of the 2010 Players Championship because of an inflamed facet joint in his neck. He missed the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational because of neck strain.