Tiger Woods told by doctors to ‘stay horizontal’

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this month because of back spasms, and the injury sounds like it is lingering.

Woods backed out of a scheduled news conference on Wednesday at the Genesis Open, a tournament he is the unofficial host of. The tournament said in a statement that Tiger has been instructed by his doctors to limit all activities, and the 14-time major winner’s agent Mark Steinberg later elaborated.

“He flew out here and got to see one of his doctors,” Steinberg said, via Doug Ferguson of the Golf Channel. “Based on the work they did the last couple of days, they advised he just stay horizontal. It’s best to listen to the doctors. The ultimate goal is to get out and play.”

That sounds like a lot more than just back spasms for a guy who has had three surgeries on his back during his career. Steinberg admitted that Woods hoped the spasms would have calmed down by now, but he is still dealing with them two weeks later.

According to Steinberg, Woods isn’t in the right physical condition to be sitting in a chair for 20 minutes answering questions. He has already withdrawn from next week’s Honda Classic and does not know when he will return.

“The goal is to get everything to calm down, have it calm down for a while, continue to get treatment and get back to a place where he’s chipping and putting and hitting balls,” Steinberg said. “We’re not talking about an extended break.”

In other words, here we go again. Tiger battled back from his latest back procedure after 15 months off, and he recently offered some sobering thoughts about his physical condition. While it sounds like we will see him again this season, it’s hard to imagine Tiger will truly ever be “back.”