Tiger Woods Has 5th Back Surgery, Postpones 2021 Golf Season

On the road to recovery. Tiger Woods confirmed that he recently underwent his fifth back surgery.

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In a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday, January 19, the 45-year-old golfer revealed he underwent a microdiscectomy procedure to remove a pressurized disc fragment. The minimally invasive operation calls for the removal of portions of a herniated disc, which will help with relieving pressure from the patient’s spinal nerve column.

Tiger Woods Undergoes 5th Back Surgery, Postpones 2021 Golf Season
Tiger Woods. Phelan M Ebenhack/AP/Shutterstock

The issue was “pinching his nerve” and caused him to feel “discomfort” after he played in the PNC Championship last month, he added. Woods is no longer expected to compete at Torrey Pines or Riviera but is “looking forward” to serving as a tournament host for the Genesis Invitational in February.

“His doctors and team have determined to be successful and expect him to make a full recovery,” the statement read.

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Woods personally addressed the matter, saying, “I look forward to begin [sic] training and am focused on getting back on tour.”

It is uncertain when the California native will return to his athletic career.

Woods’ last back operation occurred in April 2017. At the time, he had a spinal fusion surgery — a procedure that connects two or more vertebrae along the spine.

“I didn’t realize how bad my back had become and how much I was flinching and just how slow I was,” he said in a press conference in November 2017. “I didn’t realize it because it’s been a slow, degrading process. I thought I had some speed, thought I was playing halfway decent [at the 2016 Hero World Challenge], shot some good scores, but now I’ve looked back on it and man, I didn’t even have much at all.”

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In addition to undergoing multiple back surgeries, the athlete has had eight operations on his knees. The first procedure occurred in December 1994 when he had two benign tumors and scar tissue removed from his left knee. In August 2013, he memorably dropped to his knees in pain while competing during the PGA Tour.

Earlier this month, Woods’ life was explored in a two-part documentary for HBO Max, titled Tiger. Among the topics covered included his alleged affair with Rachel Uchitel, who expressed her “regret” for seeing him while he was married to Elin Nordegren.

“I regret the mistakes that I made,” she said in the documentary. “But people came at me like they wanted to blame me for the fact that a married man cheated on his wife.”

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