The drive and competitive spirit that vaulted Tiger Woods to the top of the golf world for more than a decade also appears to be contributing to his inability to catch Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major victories.
Golf.com reported Monday that Woods' withdrawal from The Masters next week to undergo back surgery for a pinched nerve has been brewing since before the U.S. Open last year.
Woods' friend and college teammate Notah Begay III told Golf.com that other issues that have troubled Woods recently have stemmed from back pain.
"I think we started to see it prior to last year's U.S. Open," Begay said. "It didn't manifest itself in the back. He had elbow issues at the Players Championship. They escalated at U.S. Open. All those things are related. When you start making compensation for back pain, all these other injuries happen.
"This pain has been going on for quite some time. It hasn't just happened in the last few weeks. There has been a research process, interviews, a lot of different people doing this. If this doesn't get cleared up, it is certainly something that can hamper performance. I think that is what he is starting to realize."
How did Woods not recognize his body wasn't right? Because the results were more important than his pain.
Woods won five tournaments in 2013 to help him reclaim the No. 1 ranking - although none of them at a major event. He hasn't won one of those since 2008, when he won the U.S. Open on one leg for his 14th major victory.
Because Woods has a history of playing so well while in pain, he probably didn't pay attention to his body or his back last season as he was piling up the wins.
Woods was his free-swinging self at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Farmers Insurance Open because there was no pressure on him to win those.
But it's also evident that Woods has been putting more pressure on himself to win a major. And added pressure puts more stress on the muscles, which could have exacerbated any ailments Woods may have been experiencing.
And that may have made winning the majors more difficult for him, physically.
Golf.com reported that Begay thought Woods was hoping he could return for the U.S. Open on June 12-15.
"If you see Tiger before Pinehurst, it means one of two things: He came back too early, because he is a competition junkie, or the surgery was a magnificent success," Golf.com stated.
That's the question: Will Tiger let himself heal or will he try to push himself like he always does?
Do you think Tiger will break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major victories? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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