Tiger Woods warned of tough task to regain fitness as he battles to overcome back problem

Tiger Woods was warned by Retief Goosen on Monday that he faced “a difficult road back” from his back problem as the world No 1 admitted his frustration at not yet knowing whether he will be fit to play at the Masters in two weeks.
Woods withdrew from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, his final Augusta warm-up, citing the complaint which has blighted his early season. It emerged last week that Woods is suffering from a bulging disc but will not require an immediate operation.
By the tone of his comments on Monday, it is clear he is desperate to play in his 20th consecutive Masters and is prepared to leave the decision as late as possible. “For Augusta, it’s actually still a little too soon [to say if he will be fit], to be honest with you,” Woods said at a press conference to announce the new title sponsor of his PGA Tour tournament, Quicken Loans.
 “That’s kind of the frustrating thing about this. I’ve had a couple weeks off and getting treatment and just working on trying to get ready for Augusta. Yet as of right now, it’s still too soon.” Later, in an interview with the Washington Post, Woods revealed how little golf he had played of late. “I’ve been chipping and putting at home – that’s it,” Woods said. “I haven’t done that much. Just listening to my doctors, listening to my therapists.” However, Woods’s message to the game is do not dismiss his chances and he used the 2008 US Open, the last major he won, as an example.
 On that occasion, Woods had been out for two months following knee surgery and his preparation was confined to nine holes on the Sunday before Torrey Pines – during which Woods lost seven balls. “I was thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t know how I’m actually going to pull this off’,” Woods said. “So I’ve done it before. Hopefully, that’ll be the case again this year.”
The difference is, of course, that the knee injury did not stop Woods from making his full swing – the back injury clearly does. On that score, Goosen can empathise with his old rival. The 45-year-old considered retiring from the game two years ago because of a debilitating condition which also began with spasms. “I knew when Tiger’s back spasms came up that it was definitely structural,” Goosen told Golf Digest. “Your back doesn’t spasm unless it’s trying to protect something. There’s nothing you can do with bulging discs to take that away... It’s a difficult road back.”

 Of course, every back injury is different, but Goosen’s tale is a salutary one. “It starts off with a bulging disc and eventually it leaks and then, in my case, starts chewing away at the bone around the area,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep, I’d wake up every time I turned over. I couldn’t hit certain shots, I had constant physio to keep me loose, and then, after about eight holes, it would spasm again.” The two-time major champion was soon diagnosed with a completely degenerated disc and after two months of deliberation he decided to have an operation to insert a titanium replacement.
Yet even then his problems were not over as he was sidelined again with a stress fracture of a facet joint. Since returning last September, the two-time major champion has recorded only one top-10 finish. Woods will pay no heed to that story but will be interested that Adam Scott could not turn the seven-shot advantage at halfway at Bay Hill into the win he required to displace Woods as world No 1. Henrik Stenson came fifth at the Arnold Palmer, and, depending on the strength of field, the Swede could have his own chance of becoming No 1 if he wins next week’s Houston Open.
 “This is as good an opportunity as I’ve ever had,” Stenson said . “We saw it a couple of years back with Luke [Donald] and Rory [McIlroy] and Lee [Westwood]. It’s fun to have a couple of guys right there.”

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