Pain-Free Tiger Woods Struggles at PGA Championship

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

Tiger WoodsTiger Woods felt fine physically during his opening round at the PGA Championship today, but his golf game wasn’t up to par with his body as he shot a first round 74 to finish Thursday at +3.

After his exit at the Bridgestone Invitational last week, many wondered if Tiger would attempt to play in golf’s final major. Woods arrived to the tournament Wednesday morning in time to get a practice round in, telling reporters after the round he felt “pain-free.”

“I felt pretty good about how I played and the shots I hit,” Woods said of Wednesday’s practice round. “I have to get used to how this golf course is playing.”

Woods looked a little flustered by the course on Thursday, shooting +1 on the back nine and +2 on the front. Currently he sits nine strokes behind Lee Westwood and Kevin Chappell, who both carded an opening round 65.

Back to His Back

Woods opened up about the back injury he suffered at Bridgestone during Wednesday’s press conference. He said he jarred his back when he stepped into a bunker and displaced his sacrum bone.

“Yeah, basically when I landed in the bunker, my sacrum went out,” Woods said. “So pinched the nerve, and hence the spasm. My physio put it back in, and we’ve just been treating it.”

Woods added that he still needs to build strength in his ailing back.

“My physio is here,” he said. “If it does go out, he’s able to fix it. One of those things, again, I still need to build strength, still continue to get stronger. Just going to take more time.”

Woods also noted that his sacrum issue was unrelated to the microdiscetomy operation he underwent on March 31 to address a pinched nerve.

“It was a different pain than what I had been experiencing, so I knew it wasn’t the site of the surgery,” Woods said. “It was different, and obviously it was just the sacrum.”

Woods said he took anti-inflammatory medication prior to his practice round, but he didn’t take any pain meds or receive a cortisone shot. He’ll try to end up on the right side of the cut line when he tees off Friday at 1:45 pm ET.

Related source: ESPN, USA Today