Tiger Woods underwent surgery on his ankle which may lead to the 15-time major champion missing some significant time for the remainder of the 2022-23 season. The surgery was a “subtalar fusion procedure” to address some of the issues he’s dealt with since his car accident in February 2021.
“Earlier today, Tiger underwent a subtalar fusion procedure to address his post-traumatic arthritis from his previous talus fracture,” read a statement posted to Woods’ Twitter account on Wednesday. “It was performed by Dr. Martin O’Malley at HSS Sports Medicine Institute New York City. He has determined the surgery to be successful. Tiger is currently recovering and looks forward to beginning his rehabilitation.
Woods withdrew from the 2023 Masters during the third round after making the cut for the 23rd consecutive year. He was in obvious pain at Augusta National as the inclement conditions did damage to his body, and Woods withdrew before what would have been a round-and-a-half slog on Sunday morning.
His next presumed appearance would theoretically be at the PGA Championship in May, but this news obviously casts a ton of doubt on that as well as the other majors — the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club and Open Championship at Hoylake — set to take place later this year.
Woods said at the Masters that he’s not necessarily optimistic about the future.
“I don’t know how many more [Masters] I have in me,” said Woods. “So just to be able to appreciate the time that I have here and cherish the memories. But still, to just look at the golf course, it looks like it’s been here for over a hundred years and hasn’t changed, and each and every year we come here, everything has changed since I first played here.”
What’s perhaps most interesting is that Woods felt this procedure was big enough to announce, which is not always the case when it comes to Big Cat. He spoke in November at the Hero World Challenge about some procedures he had on his leg that went unannounced.
Q. Early on when you were talking about your year in golf, you mentioned a couple of procedures that you had this year. I’m not sure I was aware of those. What procedures do you have?
Woods: “I had a couple surgeries, yes.”
Q. Can you elaborate?
Woods: “Nope.”
Q. Can you say when?
Woods: “In the past.”
Q. In the past.
Woods: “This year.”
So, this one was obviously significant … or more significant than many others.
Woods has played in four major championships since his car accident, and finished just one: last year’s Masters in which he finished 47th. He withdrew from the PGA Championship after three rounds, skipped the U.S. Open, missed the cut at the Open Championship and withdrew from this year’s Masters.