What was your reaction to Tiger Woods withdrawal from the Players Championship?

To me it made sense for the once dominant Woods to withdrawal after a six-over 42 after nine holes. Soreness in the knee was a convenient excuse to fly the coop at the TPC.

Tiger has never been about just playing a friendly round of golf where nothing major was at stake. His approach has always been what will get him closer to Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. Thus, with another opportunity missed at golf’s “fifth major,” and a wavering interest,  why stick around another day or two? Money!  Yeah, Right!

So, Tiger’s gone on Thursday to attend to his aches and pains. Whether that would be strained tendons, a ruptured ego…. I meant ligaments…. we were only left to ponder.

Following his departure from the Tournament of Players Championship, it was leaked into reports that the ailing Woods might sit out this year’s U.S. Open. A no show? Don’t bet on it. The Open is one of golf’s biggest stages. Woods will get his ego massaged and whatever it is they do for an athlete’s aching tendons and ligaments.

Back in 2009 Woods sought the treatment of Canadian doctor Anthony Galea. You may remember Woods was recovering from a knee surgery. He used Galea for a technique known as blood spinning.

The question arose then and is still relevant today, why would Woods chose a well-known HGH doctor from Canada when many licensed American doctors perform the technique.

Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi raised the question as to why Woods’ aches and pains are starting to happen more and more often?

“Anybody else wondering if Tiger’s prolonged winless streak is due more to the fact that his old swing coach has been fired or the fact that his old blood doctor has been indicted?” Bianchi wrote.

He added, “You remember Dr. Feelgood, right? He’s the Canadian physician who was arrested and indicted for allegedly smuggling and unlawfully distributing HGH into the United States a couple of years ago. Galea is suspected of providing performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to many elite-level athletes.”

Is it fair to accuse Tiger of any of this? Probably not. But Bianchi and others are right in raising what I think is a fair question.

HGH helps the body quickly recover from the stress placed upon it by the repetitive nature of massive, torque-producing athletic maneuvers. That’s why baseball pitchers have taken it, power hitters take it and why golfers could benefit from it, too. Golf swings and baseball windups, when done repetitively, place an enormous amount of strain on all of those moving body parts.

Name another golfer… professional athlete, in the last three years,  who has suffered from ailing body parts more than Woods?

Finally, I know what the numbers say, but with the trend his golf game seems to have taken, the other question might be does four away now feel  like 14 in his quest to catch Jack?

Filed under: Thad on Sports