Tiger Woods hints that his golf career may be over

He was by nature defiant, and it made even the most pessimistic observers remember his heyday, which somehow didn’t seem seven years ago, and think that he might one day will the ball into the hole again and again and again.

Woods, who will turn 40 later this month, is now recovering from a third surgery on his bothersome back and the 14-time major victor revealed that he has yet to start rehabilitation work.

“Pretty much everything beyond this will be gravy”, he said. “But I think we certainly haven’t seen the end of him, even if he does say that if the sun sets on the career now, it’s still good. Really good. I swear, that’s basically how I pass a lot of my time”, he added. “And then I’m done; I’ll just transition to something else”.

The 37-year-old, 17-time All-Star has struggled so far this term, averaging just 15.5 points per game and shooting at only 30.5 per cent from the field.

“There is no timetable for this, and that’s been the hardest mindset adjustment is that I don’t know. There is no timetable”. “There’s nothing I can look forward to”. When questioned on when he might return to competitive golf, Woods was hesitant to commit to a date.

Big picture, things are bleak.

Woods has not played since August when he underwent another “microdiscectomy” operation on his spine. He hasn’t won a Tour event in over two years.

Adam Scott, who finished second alongside Spieth in Sydney last week, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Chris Kirk, Billy Horschel, Bill Haas, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker, Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka, Anirban Lahiri, Paul Casey and J.B. Holmes have all descended on the Bahamas after the event was moved away from Windermere, Florida. “Hopefully the day by day adds up to something positive soon”. It feels as though this could be the end of Woods’ career. His 15-shot victory at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach was perhaps the best golf any of us will see in our lifetimes.

It appears the time has come to put aside talks of Woods breaking Jack Nicklaus’ major record for good.

There’s irony here that a golfer obsessed with fitness was betrayed by his body: knee issues, a blown Achilles, elbow problems, “deactivated glutes” and the mother of them all – a bad back. He was always precocious.

He also won 79 PGA tournaments worldwide and became a force of nature in world sport, changing the face of the game and becoming the first sportsman destined to become a billionaire. Some reporting it won’t be before the Masters, some reporting it mightn’t be in 2016 and some reported on the chance that we will never see him swing competitively again.

Woods smiled and laughed often during his news conference, his role as host of his annual tournament all but requiring it. He thanked Hero for its sponsorship.

(CNN) – Is that it for Tiger Woods?