Tiger Woods DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – FEBRUARY 02: Tiger Woods o f the USA watches his tee shot on the 1st tee during the first round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on February 2, 2017 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Tiger Woods has announced that following a surgical back procedure, it will be months before he can swing a club, but he’s definitely not retiring and he’s looking forward to competing once again.

If that sounds familiar, well, it should; it’s essentially the fourth time it’s happened over the past three years or so.

ESPN’s Jason Sobel has the record:

Today’s statement was released via Tiger’s website, and included phrases like this, which should sound familiar:

It has been just over a month since I underwent fusion surgery on my back, and it is hard to express how much better I feel. It was instant nerve relief. I haven’t felt this good in years.

There was also this one:

As for returning to competitive golf, the long-term prognosis is positive. My surgeon and physiotherapist say the operation was successful. It’s just a matter of not screwing up and letting it fuse. I’m walking and doing my exercises, and taking my kids to and from school. All I can do is take it day by day. There’s no hurry.

But, I want to say unequivocally, I want to play professional golf again.

And you know what? He just might! But “playing professional golf again” when you’re Tiger Woods is a fairly low bar. After all, if that was his only goal after his last recovery, he technically succeeded, playing one tournament in December that was essentially an exhibition, then missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open (at Torrey Pines, historically one of Tiger’s best courses) and then flying around the world to Dubai, where he could barely walk and had to withdraw after the first round.

It was a sad display, and it came as no surprise to learn that he had to have yet another procedure back in April. And now, we’re essentially right back where we were previously, with a rehabbing Tiger Woods promising to return. This time, though, the golf world is going to be far more skeptical. That Sobel tweet is a prime example, and it’s the kind of thing I predicted when I wrote last year that Tiger’s last comeback was the last chance for him to be “Tiger Woods” again:

But the majority of fans, and the media, and his fellow players? If he doesn’t have it anymore, they’ll move right on past. Tiger can’t come back now, struggle or get hurt, and then disappear for another year. That’d be it. There’d be no more mystique, no more inherent assumption that he’ll still be back one day, competing for wins.

This is the last time people give Tiger Woods credit for having been Tiger Woods, and he has to know that, too. 

That’s still the case now, as the predictable injury backslide (no pun intended) has occurred. No one is rooting against Tiger, it’s important to note. That’s how some people have interpreted the very reasonable questions about the viability of yet another return. Realism is realism. It’d be great for golf if he did come all the way back again, but at this point, how can that idea be viewed as anything other than a soon-to-be-yanked-away football?

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.