Tiger’s Back? Oh, No 

When the news broke Tuesday afternoon that Tiger Woods had undergone yet another procedure on his back – that’s five now – it was a jolt like the pain from an old injury reminding you it’s still there.

Wishing – and fusion surgery – was never going to be enough to make Tiger’s back whole again and the statement announcing Woods recently underwent another microdiscectomy to remove a pressurized disc fragment was a disheartening reminder of reality.

He’s 45. His back is fused in one spot. On good days it’s tight and tender. On other days, it’s profoundly unpleasant.

Now we’re left to wonder – again – about what it means for the guy who has played the greatest golf ever.

The alarmist take is that this is a procedure too far, an accent mark on the three similar procedures (one in 2014, two in 2015) and the last-ditch fusion (in 2017) that allowed him to be Tiger Woods again. At some point, the thinking goes, it will have been too much.

Maybe so.

Maybe not.

Even to the most optimistic, the news had to produce a disappo...