Tiger Returns (Again) Roundup: What Now

In an October, 2016 Golf Digest feature that was posted after TigerWoods.com got the big scoop on Tiger's return, Jaime Diaz contemplated the many issues Tiger faces in returning to play, a return Diaz still thought could yield results.

Included is this about the nature of back injuries:

There is much research providing evidence that tension from unresolved repressed emotions—particularly anger and shame—can be an important source of chronic pain. According to work pioneered by Dr. John Sarno, a now-retired professor of rehabilitation medicine at NYU, the body's reaction to deep psychological wounds can be to create physical pain to prevent hidden emotions from becoming conscious.

Sarno calls this Tension Myoneural Syndrome and says that such psychosomatic pain that can't be traced to actual structural changes often occurs in the back.

Afremow, the peak-performance coordinator for the San Francisco Giants, says he often sees variations of the syndrome at work in competitive sports. "Especially with top athletes, pain can be a barometer of their stress level," he says. "Men especially tend to bottle everything up, and this is more true for the highest achievers, who are used to pushing through everything. It can result in constant pain, without any physical sign. The mind-body connection has been underestimated."

Rex Hoggard, after hearing the news, considered the time Tiger has been away and all that has happened. He wrote this for GolfChannel.com:

Things have clearly been moving in the right direction back home on his private practice range in Jupiter, Fla. – by most accounts he’s not spending much time playing in public – but after more than a year on the DL he’s not dismissing the prospect of a wrong turn.

It was a subtle part of Woods’ otherwise positive message on Wednesday.

Ryan Lavner, reporting from Crooked Stick, has the reaction of Tiger's fellow players, ranging from relieved to not having to deal with the "circus" the Tiger will return will bring (McIlroy), to not even knowing about the news (Justin Thomas).

“He brings an aura and an atmosphere that no one else in golf can bring,” McIlroy said.

Added McDowell: “No disrespect to Rory, Jordan (Spieth), Jason (Day) or Dustin (Johnson), because I think we’ve got an unbelievable crop of young talent that are incredible role models for the sport and give the game a real appeal, but no one moves the needle like Tiger Woods. He’s the only one who transcended the sport.”

Brandel Chamblee suggested that Tiger risks injury again if he returns with the same swing, and says Woods has lost six year of his career to swing change adjustments.

“If he comes back and he continues to swing the way he was swinging when he was last playing, I think that he will risk injury,” Chamblee said Wednesday.

“There's a far easier way to swing the golf club, in my opinion, than the way he was swinging the golf club. If he comes back and indeed if he is swinging more upright, he does have a little freer lower body movement, if he does have a move off of the ball, if he does all those things, I think it will be easier on his back.”

Woods has already cost himself six years of his career making swing changes, Chamblee said. “He's cost himself two years changing a golf swing in '98, two years changing a golf swing in 2003, two years changing a golf swing in 2010. That's six years."

As I noted in discussing the news with Lisa Cornwell on Golf Central Wednesday, the reaction seems only positive and the way Tiger rolled out the news was solid on several levels: he prefaced the news just in case and best of all, resolved this before his Ryder Cup assistant captaincy, where questions about his return could have become a distraction.