Despite Tiger Woods’ well-documented injuries, legendary golfer Padraig Harrington thinks the 15-time major winner is still capable of adding another championship to his résumé.
Woods made an impressive return to the golf course just 14 months after he suffered significant leg injuries in a car accident in the Los Angeles area in February 2021.
Harrington remains confident in Woods’ ability to play at a high level, so much so that said he believes Woods can win another major.
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“You’d never run Tiger off,” Harrington said, drawing from the two hours he watched Woods play in a 10-hole made-for-TV exhibition last weekend. “But I actually think he might be… in a better place than I had thought.”
Woods will turn 47 before the end of the year, and last month he mentioned that he will only play in select tournaments going forward. The golfer also revealed that he had additional surgeries this year related to his traumatic car crash.
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Last year, Woods said during a session with reporters there was a “50-50” chance at one point that his leg would have to be amputated.
Aside from the crash-related surgeries, Woods has suffered a variety of injuries over the last several years. The wear and tear on his body now has the golfer looking at the finish line.
Plantar fasciitis in his right foot prevented Woods from playing the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas two weeks ago. He is set to play with his son Charlie in the PNC Championship this weekend, partially due to carts being permitted.
Woods and Charlie, 13, finished one shot behind John Daly and his son last year.
Harrington went on to applaud Woods for his resiliency.
“There’s two things that make a golfer — how talented they are and how resilient they are,” Harrington said Thursday after storms washed out the PNC Championship pro-am. “Usually you get very talented, not very resilient; or you get very resilient and not very talented. Tiger, through his whole career, has both of those, which is very unusual.”
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Not all golfers were singing the same tune as Harrington. Earlier this week, Colin Montgomerie said he doesn’t think Woods can win another major.
“Listen, yes, he’s great,” Montgomerie said on a podcast. “But Tiger doesn’t have to now just get back to the standard he was performing at then. He has to improve it. The standard is improving all the time, and there’s not one or two guys that can beat him now.
“There’s 22 guys that can beat him. So, it’s Tiger trying to get not back to where he was, but to get to a standard he’s never been at before, and I don’t think that’s possible. I can’t see that happening. I’d love it to happen because it’s great for the game. I would love him to win. But I just can’t see it happening.”
Woods has played a total of 172 holes this year in tournaments. He tied for 48th at the Masters, and he also missed the cut at St. Andrews.
He used a cart last Saturday at The Match with Rory McIlroy as his partner.
Harrington and Woods faced off 20 years ago in the third round of the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. Woods would go on to win his second straight major.
The two have remained friends ever since.
Fellow golfer Stewart Cink said Woods should not be counted out.
“I would say we are never really going to know how much is in there because he just continues to do more than we thought he would ever be able to do,” Cink said. “He continues to defy really all conceivability.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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