Woods Unsure Over Future

Tiger Woods has described his road back to competitive golf as an ‘arduous task’ and is still unsure when he will be able to play again following his latest knee surgery. 

The American is still recovering from anterior cruciate ligament surgery and is yet to play since his famous US Open victory at Torrey Pines earlier this year. Woods then missed the US team’s Ryder Cup win over Europe and in total, has been out of action for six months now.

Speaking about the recovery process, Woods admitted that he has to ‘do a lot of work’ to get back to full fitness and that it is going to take ‘a little bit of time’ yet. It certainly seems that Woods is being cautious when talking about the length of time he is going to be out for.

Emphasising this view, when asked about a specific time scale on his return he simply replied ‘I don’t know.’ He then went on to say that the whole process is taken ‘day-to-day’.

Like anything in sport though, there have been rumours about when the 14-time major champion will return to the fold. Some reports have suggested that he is two weeks ahead of schedule, while others have said that it could be at least another six months before he is anything like his best again.

It seems that we will just have to wait and see. Woods isn’t going to go naming dates and then be seen as ‘failing’ to make them. The Masters in April next year have been muted as a target, but nothing official has come from the player himself.

One thing that we can be sure on though is that Woods will be growing increasingly frustrated on the sidelines. As much as he doesn’t want to rush back to competitive action, he will be keen to return to the golf course and show everyone why he is the best in the world.

Since his injury, his lead at the top of the world ranking has shrunk from 11.3 to 3.8 with Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington benefiting from Woods’ absence. This has led to some golf odds suggesting that Woods – who has been number one in the world for 529 weeks in his career – could be eclipsed at the beginning of 2009.

Garcia, Harrington and even Phil Mickelson may well see an opportunity to take over as the world’s leading golfer and will want to start next year in top form to give themselves a chance.

As for Woods, he says that he is happy enough ‘gradually’ building himself up for competitive action. Nevertheless, he admitted he was ‘really looking forward’ to the day he returns.

So are we Tiger. So are we.

By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about golf betting