Predicting the end of Woods’ career has become a cottage industry. After his SUV veered off course at the end of his Florida driveway in November 2009 and the major wins dried up, the questions were about his head. But the rest of his body began betraying him before that. If his use of painkillers has tipped over into dependence, getting back to golf is the least of his worries.
“I think that he’s struggling and I wish him well,” Jack Nicklaus said Tuesday, talking to reporters ahead of the Memorial Tournament he will be hosting this weekend at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
He talked about being both a friend and a fan, and about wanting to see Woods back on a course someday.
“I hope he gets out of it,” Nicklaus said, adding, “He needs a lot of support from a lot of people.”
For the first half of his life, Earl and Tida Woods looked after everything even remotely Tiger-related. All he had to do from a very young age was play championship-caliber golf, or else be seriously prepping himself to play that way, everywhere and every time he teed it up. And for the better part of two decades, Woods did not disappoint.
