Tiger Woods says he will ‘never’ play golf again full time
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Tiger Woods said Tuesday he’s “lucky to be alive” following a serious car crash earlier this year that will prevent him from ever playing the game full-time again.
In his first press conference since suffering severe injuries from the Southern California wreck in February, Woods also revealed that he nearly lost a leg and that amputation “was on the table.”
“I’m lucky to be alive, but also to still have the limb,” Woods told reporters ahead of his charity tournament, the Hero World Challenge.
“Those are two crucial things. I’m very, very grateful that someone upstairs was taking care of me, that I’m able to not only to be he here but to walk without a prosthesis.”
In an interview published Monday in Golf Digest, Woods said he’ll “never” be a full-time player on the PGA tour again but still hopes to “click off a tournament here or there.”
Comparing the sport to scaling the world’s tallest mountain, Woods noted that after a previous back surgery, he had to “climb Mt. Everest one more time. I had to do it, and I did. I don’t think I’ll have the body to climb Mt. Everest, and that’s okay. I can still participate in the game of golf.”
Woods, 45, fractured the tibia and fibula in his right leg after a Feb. 23 crash in suburban Los Angeles.
Woods had been traveling more than 80 mph when he lost control of the Genesis SUV and plowed into a tree. There were no signs Woods was impaired, authorities said, and no charges were filed.
Woods, who has netted 82 tournaments in a 25-year career, including five Masters, was charged with a DUI in 2017. Soon after, he checked himself into a clinic for prescription drug abuse.
In the February crash, authorities believe Woods tried to pump the brakes but accidentally gunned the accelerator. The SUV was going 75 mph when it hit the tree and went airborne.
Woods faced the possibility of amputation after being taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “Golf Digest” reported.
At one point, Woods says he wasn’t sure “if I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” he told the magazine, adding that he still has “so far to go” rehabilitating his leg.
“I’m not even at the halfway point yet,” he said.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.
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