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A16 SPORTS
Thursday 20 april 2023
Tiger Woods has ankle surgery, rest of majors in doubt

By DOUG FERGUSON da, to begin rehabilitating.
AP Golf Writer As for when Woods could
Tiger Woods had fusion return to playing golf, Stein-
surgery on his right ankle berg said there was “no
Wednesday morning to al- timetable on this.”
leviate arthritis from a bro- “The first goal is to recover
ken bone, putting in doubt and lead a much more en-
whether he plays any more joyable day-to-day life,”
majors this year. he said.
Woods disclosed the sur- Woods shattered multiple
gery on Twitter and said it bones in his right leg and
was a subtalar fusion pro- ankle in February 2021
cedure to address post- when the SUV he was driv-
traumatic arthritis from ing crashed off a suburban
when he broke his talus coastal Los Angeles road
bone in February 2021. at about 85 mph and tum-
“He’s resting now and will bled down the side of a hill.
start the recovery pro- The injuries were so severe,
cess,” Mark Steinberg, his Woods said, that doctors
agent at Excel Sports, said contemplated amputa-
in a telephone interview. tion. Woods has had mul-
The surgery took place in tiple surgeries on his leg as
New York, and Steinberg Tiger Woods reacts after missing a putt on the 18th hole during the weather delayed second a result of the car crash.
said Woods has returned to round of the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday, April 8, 2023, in The ankle has been caus-
his home near Jupiter, Flori- Augusta, Ga ing most of the problems
Associated Press of late, including a notice-
able limp when he played
four of the last five majors,
most recently the Masters
two weeks ago.
The talus is the second-
largest of a group of bones
known as the tarsus, which
forms the lower part of the
ankle joint and transmits
the weight of the body
from the lower leg to the
foot. The subtalar joint al-
lows for side-to-side move-
ment needed for walking,
especially on uneven sur-
faces.
Most estimates put recov-
ery from subtalar fusion
at eight to 12 weeks. That
would all but rule out the
PGA Championship next
month Woods was doubt-
ful, anyway, given it will be
at Oak Hill in Rochester,
New York, with likely cold
temperatures.
The U.S. Open is June 15-
18 at Los Angeles Country
Club, and the British Open
is in three months (July 20-
23) at Royal Liverpool in
England.
Woods made an improb-
able return 14 months af-
ter the car crash to play in
the Masters and walked 72
holes. Remarkably, he has
missed only one cut the
British Open at St. Andrews
last summer although he
withdrew after three rounds
of the PGA Championship
last year and he withdrew
this year in the middle of
the third round of the rain-
delayed Masters.q