He has definitely put on a ton of muscle. I remember following him around at Disney in 1996 when he shot 63 soon after turning pro. I think he had him listed at 155lb, and that was probably an exaggeration. The dude was a string bean, but was crazy fast. He could bomb it 300+, which was amazing considering how skinny he was and with mid 90's equipment.

Let's say Tiger has the 10 best doctors in the world.

Do you think they would offer the exact uniform advice? I would think 3 would say surgery, 3 might say rehab, and 4 may say just quit golf for awhile.

http://www.thespinehealthinstitute.c...-so-surprising

This is from late 2015.

***Tiger’s surgeon pronounced his second microdiscectomy “a complete success,” and there’s no reason to believe that the earlier procedure wasn’t just as successful.***

***Tiger is scheduled to start his rehabilitation this week, and given the fact that he was able to return to the course approximately three months after his last microdiscectomy, his goal of getting back to golf in early 2016 seems reasonable.***

Of course his surgeon said his surgery was a complete success. What else are they going to say? "Um, I hope this highly experimental procedure with shockingly low results that you paid $50,000 works".

Well, what is the surgeon saying now why he didn't play in 2016?

There is a change that TW can come back. To what form, who knows. Risky. And it so challenging because it is not like he needs to come back for financial reasons. Let's say he can get to 19 majors but that means he would end up in a wheelchair. Would he do it? He may. I think it is a big part of his life. He was programmed as a top athlete at a much younger age than most people. It is his identity. I don't know if he cannot give it his all, no matter what it means. Which is why he keeps pushing himself. Probably against any conventional medical advice. His life.

This is very interesting on a personal level. I run a medical practice, own a pharmacy, own physical therapy and work with the world's top doctors. I say world's top doctors because every surgeon says they are the best.

I hear failed-surgery 10 times a day. But I can never decipher what that truly means. Did the surgeon fail, did the patient fail with follow-up treatment, did the patient do something else wrong later and blames the surgeon, was the surgery not appropriate, or did it actually work for a few years only? They are all in pain. Perhaps some are faking it for medication, but the majority do seem in pain. And it is virtually all back-related. I rarely hear other body parts causing decades of misery. Because of this, I have been inundated with marketers and information overload. I read an article today that stretching does not work. There was an article that ibuprofen makes it worse long-term. There is this quell device. There is acupuncture. Which supposedly works if you believe it works, but if you don't, it will make your back worse. Some swear by chiropractors. Medicare know considers that virtually fraudulent and won't be covering it anymore.

Can someone 41-years old with back issues return to the highest levels and should they even try and how? He is very secretive with his medical issues which is his right. He doesn't need to post his MRI and have every person opine. If he takes narcotics, that is protected information. But there is part of me that thinks he would be doing a diservive to lie. It is ok to be in pain and take prescription medication. It is ok to say that the surgery did not work.

All very unique and also actually incredibly normal. Doctors are conservative and would tell him to retire. But how do you deal with a patient who doesn't want to listen and nobody can predict what that will mean in 20 years. If he was told he will get to 19 majors but it is a 25% of a wheelchair, how would he respond? Interesting philosophical life questions.

Nobody pm'd me any bet offers

People have lost their minds with these TW bulk comparisons. TW and an OLB? The average line backer in the NFL is ~245 LBs. I seriously doubt Tiger has ever topped 190, and that is smaller than the average NFL cornerback.

I will also never for the life of me understand the people crying for Butch. Did Tiger play out of this world with Butch? Yes. Was that the best golf of his life? Debatable. People seem to forget how unbelievable Tiger was in the late 2000's. Everyone just defaults to when he won the Tiger Slam, which is an incredible feat but again using just majors as a single metric doesn't tell the entire story.

From 99-01 which many will say was PEAK Tiger he played 60 events, won 22 of them (37%), and finished in the top 10 in 39 (70%).

However from 2006-2009 Tiger played in 54 events, won 25 of them (46%), and finished in the top 10 43 times (80%).

Tiger as a musclebound hulk, lol. Goes to show how soft and pasty the average pro golfer is. I guess Tiger is musclebound when standing next to PGA specimens like Webb Simpson and Colt Knost.

Fwiw here is a recent pic of Tiger:



That's not musclebound. It's a fit middle-aged guy who has a bad back.

A few years ago they said Brady would never win another SB

ijs

The way some people talk about Tiger you would think he's 10, 11, 12 feet tall.

Using this as a jumping off point but I think this is true. It's also a decent refutation of the fact that Tiger's muscle mass is a problem, at least as far as his back and knees are concerned (I leave it to the swing mechanics to determine if his muscle is hurting his swing).

That is, a 150 lb guy generating the kind of torque and pressure on his knees and backs to consistently bomb it 300+ is intense. Potentially if not probably destructive.

Young Tiger bombed it because he had so much more hip and lower-back rotation. That's how a thin lanky guy bombs it. The problem: the ligaments in your knee are the only thing holding that rotation, so his knee was surely under tremendous duress with each swing. All of that pressure is going to eventually degrade and tear the cartilage in his knee.

Hence the 'early' career ACL tears by his mid 30s.

I'm not an expert but I'm guessing Foley, etc. moved a lot of the torque and pressure from his knee to his back. The result: back problems.

Hard to say but paradoxically Tiger's problems may not be that he's musclebound, it's that he didn't bulk up earlier. This part is probably the most controversial though since I'm not convinced the correlation between most muscles and golf swing speed are obvious. But I feel far more confident that "crazy fast" swing -- those x violent swings per day or week or whatever on a really thin frame like that -- is what led to the breakdown of his body. I'm not sure how he could have mitigated that. Not convinced muscle was the answer.

To some extent the issue may be that he's never wound down the violence of his swing as he's aged, at least not enough. I think he wants to get back to a dominant level when in reality his best shot at winning more majors is prolonging his career and contending for maybe one a year, while minimizing injury risk - not trying to become dominant for 1-2 years while maximizing his injury risk.

He should be fine tuning a 70% swing that's smooth and easy on his body, focusing more on his short game, and refusing to hit shots that have a higher injury risk (trying to go for it from deep rough or with roots under his ball) unless it's the back nine of a major on Sunday and he's up or down by 2 shots or less.

The competitive fire and stubbornness that made him so great are now undermining him.

And we should respect that on the flip side of it. They say leave it all out on the field. Can we say Tiger didn't do that if he retired tomorrow?

Not looking good at all

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf...edium=referral

Time to lock up the thread.

Ah too bad. One surgery too many.

Time to think about his next chapter I guess. He's only 41 and a successful businessman and philanthropist. I'd like to see him do some commentary, he's been very good in the booth the few times I've heard him.

Maybe he could become the next viral youtube golf instructor.

Relax people - we'll be doing the "he's back!!" in time for The Masters.

You left out a few words in between he's and back, like "got a totally ****ed up".

The two aren't mutually exclusive as recent years have proven.

The guy played and won a US Open with a broken leg. I don't think even his biggest critics would accuse Tiger of not leaving it all on the field

Better be since I'll be there this year!

Pulls out of two more tourneys yup

Is that a good thing or bad thing? Yes, he won US Open. Perhaps at the expense of future health. Of course he gives everything. There is so much the human body and mind can take. The effort to come back each time goes higher and higher as you get older. And unpredictable. This has been painful to watch afar.

Hard to believe last major was 2008. He seemed poised to win as majors as he wanted. And then just stopped. Such is life. It just may be a long pause.

saw an interesting piece of data on tiger today but i forgot the real specifics. maybe someone can put more specific info.

anyway, tiger's pga tour start number - i.e. priority to get into tournaments - is now #70 and will stay there for a long time. i.e. he's not in danger of having nowhere to play.

the funny thing i read is that jack, gary player and lee trevino still have priority -i.e. better start number - than TW.

but i guess a lifetime exemption is just that.... must be some playability judgement involved somewhere but TW is a long long away from that issue.

can't remember tw's exact start # but it was around 70. and lots above him will never be playing.

http://www.pgatour.com/news/2017/16-...y-ranking.html

some bad info in your post. TW still on 2nd step due to this 2013 Players win.

As you summed up, impossible. That is what made him who he is. He can't change that. To do anything less than full velocity is a ceremonial golfer. Perhaps he will embrace that role. Arnold Palmer certainly did. Went after everything and kept on playing. This back injury seems much worse though. Can feel his pain radiating. Something he will probably have to live with and adjust like many people do.