Tiger Woods has a seventh back surgery to have disk replaced

Tiger Woods grimaces on the 15th hole during the first round of the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Thursday, April 6, 2023, in Augusta, Ga.

Tiger Woods has gone through a seventh back surgery, this time to replace a disk in his lower back and had caused pain and mobility issues.

Woods said in a social media post he had the surgery in New York and said it was the right decision for his his health and his troubled back.

He did not mention how long it would keep him out of golf, though it was unclear if he was going to try to play in his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas or the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie. Both tournaments are in December.

He hasn’t played since a playoff loss in the PNC Championship last year.

It was his second surgery of the year -- he had surgery in March after rupturing his left Achilles tendon -- and second back surgery in the last 13 months.

Woods said he consulted doctors and surgeons have experiencing pain and lack of mobility in his back.

“The scans determined that I had a collapsed disc in L4/5, disc fragments and a compromised spinal canal,” Woods said Saturday. “I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday, and I already know I made a good decisions for my health and my back.”

Woods had the first of his seven back surgery in April 2014, which eventually led to having his lower back fused in 2017. A year later, he won the Tour Championship and then captured his 15th major and fifth green jacket at the 2019 Masters.

Now his back is only part of a body that has been broken over the last five years. Most serious was a car crash in February 2021 that shattered his right leg and ankle, which Woods has said nearly led to a decision to amputate.

He managed to return a year later at the 2022 Masters.

Since the car crash, Woods has played only 15 times in the last four years, four of those at the PNC Championship where he can use a cart for the 36-hole event.

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press