Tiger Woods Spinal Fusion Surgery: What Happened?

Apr 04, 2019

Tiger Woods spinal fusion surgery took place in April 2017. Since then we have seen a remarkable return to form the former world number one. But what is spinal fusion surgery?

Tiger Woods Spinal Fusion Surgery

As anyone who has suffered with chronic back pain will know, doing anything can be an ordeal. This was certainly the case for Tiger Woods. For years he has suffered with spasms and sciatic pain running through his legs. Standing up and sitting down were a struggle, let alone swinging a golf club. If he was going to live pain free and make a golfing come back and play in the Masters something had to be done but what is spinal fusion surgery and how did it help Tiger Woods?

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Spinal fusion surgery involves identifying the painful vertebrae in the spine and fusing them together. Essentially, the process involves bonding two painful bones into one stronger, pain-free but less mobile vertebrae. The idea is that by restricting the movement of the individual bones, you should be able to eliminate the pain.

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For any sportsman the idea of restricting movement is daunting but Tiger’s options were few and far between. Having tried a host of remedies, he sought a more permanent solution to his chronic back pain and Tiger woods spinal fusion surgery took place last April. By this time he was struggling to walk let alone swing a golf club and painkillers had become a constant feature in his life. Returning from the spinal fusion surgery involved physical rehabilitation but also required a 28-day period in a Florida treatment centre.

Since returning from his spinal fusion surgery we have seen the apparent back restriction has not stopped him from swinging incredibly quickly. His current clubhead speed of 122 mph with the driver, places him second on the PGA Tour for swing speed. This would have been fast for Tiger even at his peak and is barely believable for those of us who watched Tiger try to compete over the last few years.

Tiger Woods Spinal Fusion Surgery

Back pain and golf go hand-in-hand. In a study done by the Titleist Performance Institute, 28% of the 31,000 golfers who took part, struggle with lower back pain after every round. Indeed, many of you reading this will know how debilitating it is.

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All of the this means that if Tiger Woods does return to highest level of golf, and wins a major, it will surely go down as one of the greatest sporting comebacks of all time.

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