Golf great Tiger Woods has gone through a seventh back surgery, this time to replace a disk in his lower back that had caused pain and impeded his mobility.
Woods wrote in a social media post Saturday that he had the surgery in New York and said it was the right decision for his health and his troubled back.
He did not mention how long it would keep him out of competition, though it was unclear if he was going to try to play in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, which he hosts annually, or the PNC Championship in Florida with his son, Charlie. Both tournaments are in December.
Woods hasn’t played since a playoff loss in the PNC Championship last year.
This was his second operation of the year — he had surgery in March after rupturing his left Achilles tendon — and second back surgery in the past 13 months.
Woods said he consulted doctors and surgeons after experiencing pain and a lack of mobility in his back.
“The scans determined that I had a collapsed disc in L4/5, disc fragments and a compromised spinal canal,” Woods wrote Saturday. “I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday, and I already know I made a good decisions for my health and my back.”
Woods had the first of his seven back surgeries in April 2014, which eventually led to having his lower back fused in 2017. A year later, he won the Tour Championship, then captured his 15th major championship as he won the 2019 Masters, his fifth victory at Augusta National.
His most recent PGA Tour victory was at the Zozo Championship in Japan in October 2019, when he tied Sam Snead’s career record 0f 82 wins.
Now his back is only part of a body that has been broken over the past five years. Most serious was a car crash in February 2021 that shattered his right leg and ankle, which Woods has said nearly led to a decision to amputate. He managed to return a year later at the 2022 Masters.
Since the car crash, Woods has played only 15 times in the past four years, four of those at the PNC Championship, where he can use a cart for the 36-hole, two-day event.