{"id":219266,"date":"2025-10-17T07:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219266\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T07:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:51:11","slug":"why-tiger-woodss-latest-back-surgery-is-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219266\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tiger Woods&#8217;s Latest Back Surgery Is Different"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_owswkqn9k\">Tiger Woods\u2019 road back to competitive golf has hit\u00a0<a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/how-tiger-woods-could-return-after-latest-back-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">another setback<\/a>. As he continues to recover from a ruptured Achilles, news broke that the 15-time major champion had his seventh back surgery, a development that once again clouds his timeline for return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_qijq3nm4v\">To help unpack what this means for Woods&#8217;s career, Sports Illustrated Senior Golf Writer\u00a0<a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/author\/bob-harig\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bob Harig<\/a>\u00a0joined the\u00a0Dan\u2019s Golf World Show\u00a0to offer insight into the surgery, recovery expectations and Woods&#8217;s long-term outlook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_b3jc9mnqr\">Harig explained that this most recent procedure, a disc replacement, is unlike Tiger\u2019s previous back operations, including his 2017 spinal fusion and multiple microdiscectomies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_sq5ricmp6\">\u201cThe best way to describe it is, a [microdiscectomy] is a Band-Aid to deal with a disc issue,\u201d Harig said. \u201cWith the [disc replacement], you\u2019ve addressed it, you\u2019ve replaced it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_yqk12d51s\">While more invasive than his earlier procedures, Harig noted that\u00a0<a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/tiger-woods-announces-another-back-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">this surgery<\/a>\u00a0isn\u2019t as serious as the 2017 fusion that sidelined Woods for more than a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_j0whos5t1\">\u201cMy understanding is this is about a three-month recovery,\u201d Harig said. \u201cMy guess is that by early January he\u2019s cleared to start doing more activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_zpxgsh5x2\">That\u2019s encouraging news for golf fans, but Harig warns that expectations should remain realistic. Woods hasn\u2019t played meaningful competitive golf in 18 months, and his path back to elite form is uncertain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_q58t4klun\">\u201cAre you going to beat Scottie Scheffler without having hit chip shots, bunker shots, pitch shots or three to four-footers?\u201d Harig asked. \u201cHe only played 11 rounds of golf last year. That\u2019s where the Champions Tour could come in, 54 holes and golf carts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_2a7c5qkdf\">When could Tiger realistically return? Could the Masters be on the table? And would he play on the Champions Tour?<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_obnpz9ib8\">Bob Harig breaks it all down, the surgery, the recovery timeline, and the reality of a comeback on\u00a0<a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/podcasts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Dan\u2019s Golf World Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods\u2019 road back to competitive golf has hit\u00a0another setback. As he continues to recover from a ruptured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-219266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}