Tiger woods He underwent a microdiscectomy to relieve nerve pain in his lower back and will not participate in the Farmers Insurance Open next week or the Genesis Invitational next month.
An announcement came via Woods’ Twitter account that he had “recently undergone a microdisectomy to remove the portion of the CD that was pinching his nerves after experiencing discomfort after the PNC tournament.”
Woods is no stranger to this procedure. He did this three times – once in the spring of 2014 and twice in the fall of 2015. He eventually underwent a more serious procedure called spinal fusion in April 2017 that kept him from swinging the club for six months.
He returned from that surgery in 2018 and went on to win the Tour Championship that year followed by the Masters in 2019 and the Zozo Championship later that year.
Woods, 45, struggled for most of 2020 and occasionally complained of back stiffness and pain.
After finishing ninth in the Farmers Insurance Open a year ago, he never came close to competing in the eight tournaments he played the rest of the year. The tie finished 38th at the Masters in November.
The PNC Championship is the 36-hole event he played last month with his 11-year-old son, Charlie.
“I look forward to starting training and returning to the tour,” Woods said in the statement, and also acknowledged that he will not participate in any of the two California tournaments he expects to play.
When Woods underwent his first comeback on March 31, 2014, he returned to competition in June of that year, although many believed it was too early. He had the operation again in September 2015 and then six weeks later.
