Tiger Woods writes an ode to suffering

Can you sign one of the worst rounds of your career and yet end with the recognition and applause of the world of golf?

Yes, if we talk about Tiger Woods.

Of this Tiger Woods.

The 46-year-old champion of 15 majors suffered this Saturday like few times in a field, on the third day of the PGA Championship, the second major of the season, on the tortuous course of Southern Hills, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Tiger drags a very damaged bodywork.

Five knee operations, five back operations, and a very serious fracture of his right leg just over a year ago in a traffic accident have ended in a lame man.

Literally, Tiger Woods cannot walk without an obvious limp, a forced movement of the hip, the pain reflected in his face.

Do it for five hours on a golf course, with its ups and downs, for several days in a row and with the physical effort required by the movement of the

, leads Woods to a real ordeal.

If the conditions are also against him, like this Saturday in Southern Hills (wind, cold, rain, an early start that did not allow him much warm-up...), the ordeal becomes a nightmare.

Tiger rowed and rowed on Friday to make the cut in the second major in a row he played, after a 47th place in the Masters, the first tournament he played in more than 500 days, and the titanic effort took its toll.

It was nine shots over par, for a total of +12, at the tail end of the pack.

Unbecoming of the legend of him.

The 79 strokes that Tiger delivered are his worst return in the PGA Championship, the third highest in his imperial career in the greats (after the 81 of the British Open of 2002 and the 80 of the US Open of 2015) and the fifth worst of his entire career.

And yet, the public and his teammates recognized the enormous merit of the champion for not retiring and continuing to compete until the end of the round despite his obvious gestures of pain.

Woods, yes, will decide if he competes on the day this Sunday or definitely stays in the ice tub.

On the horizon appears the US Open in June and, above all, a very special British Open in July, the 150th edition of the European great, in the Scottish cradle of Saint Andrews, a flatter course that can give a break to the punished legs of the tiger.

ice baths

Two great and two last cuts.

You have to be steel to get Tiger's crush in the Masters and the PGA.

With a physique that is surely at 50% of the capacity it could acquire with more training and rehabilitation (and more ice baths), overcoming obstacles can only be explained from a unique mental strength.

"I've already won a big lame," Woods told himself, recalling the 2008 US Open he won with torn ligaments.

And so his mind forced him to go on, to push.

Tiger starts his weekend in Southern Hills.@TigerWoods |

#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/wE4yT9iXjK

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 21, 2022

Until arriving at this Saturday in which the ordeal became almost unbearable.

A

on the second hole, with the ball in the water, advanced the step by the dentist.

Cold, pain, humidity... Triple

on six, two extra shots on seven and nine... six shots over par on the first nine holes.

And more

on 10, 11, 12, 13... five

consecutive

Unthinkable for a Tiger who resisted and ended up writing an ode to suffering.

The birdie on the 15th was celebrated almost like a release.

It wasn't just a day for Tiger's suffering.

Jon Rahm also stopped by the Southern Hills operating room.

Six

(three in the first nine holes and another three in the second) increased his card to eight over par, moons behind his head.

Full PGA Ranking.

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