Tiger Woods on Sunday 21st 2021 shared a three-second video clip of himself hitting golf balls for the first time since his February car crash. "Making progress," was the caption on the video posted to Woods' social media accounts, the first official update of his condition since April 2021.
In the video he is wearing a compression sock on his right leg, which sustained serious injuries when he ran his SUV over a median and it toppled down a steep hill on a winding, sweeping road in the Los Angeles suburbs on his way to a television shoot at a golf course on February 23rd 2021, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
Woods, 45 years old, sustained open fractures to his tibia and fibula, which needed a rod inserted to aid healing, and also foot and ankle injuries that needed screws and pins placed to aid in stabilisation.
In an interview published May 27th in Golf Digest, with which Woods has a financial deal, he described the rehabilitation from this surgery as "more painful than anything I have ever experienced." He said at the time his top priority was "walking on my own."
His last full tournament was the Masters one year ago in November. It was not clear why Woods posted the video on Sunday. He hosts the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas the week after Thanksgiving. Woods has had 10 surgeries - four on his left knee, five on his lower back and the most recent for the crushing injuries from the car accident.
He won a third U.S. Open in 2008 while competing on shredded ligaments in his left knee and a double stress fracture, and he returned from fusion surgery on his lower spine in 2017 by winning a fifth Masters in 2019.
His last victory was the Zozo Championship in Japan in the fall of 2019, giving him 82 for his career on the PGA Tour to tie Sam Snead for the all-time record.