Tiger Woods ruptures left Achilles, undergoes surgery that puts his major season in doubt

On Tuesday afternoon, Tiger Woods posted on his social media accounts that he ruptured the Achilles tendon in his left leg while training, and earlier that morning underwent "minimally invasive" surgery to repair the tendon.

"As I began to ramp up my own training and practice at home, I felt a sharp pain in my left Achilles, which was deemed to be ruptured," Woods wrote. "This morning, Dr. Charlton Stucken of Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida performed a minimally-invasive Achilles tendon repair for a ruptured tendon. “The surgery went smoothly, and we expect a full recovery,” added Dr. Stucken. I am back home now and plan to focus on my recovery and rehab, thank you for all the support."

It's not immediately clear how he ruptured the tendon beyond "training and practice." This is the latest in a career full of injuries for Woods, who was eligible but did not enter the field for this week's Players Championship. He had entered last month's Genesis Invitational, but pulled out the Monday of tournament week in the wake of his mother's death, saying he was not in the right place mentally to compete.

The question now, however, is when might Woods be healthy enough to play again in a PGA Tour event. It was presumed that Tiger was doing everything he could to prepare to play in next month's Masters. Most sources, however, indict that recovery from even minor Achilles tendion repair surgery happens over a matter of months, not weeks, which—if his recovery follows a typical timeline—would reasonably be expected to keep him out of not just the Masters but potentially the remaining majors in 2025.

Dr. Alex Shafiro, an orthopedic specialist who treats sports medicine injuries at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery, said that Woods' recovery will entail "immediate muscle activation with blood flow restriction device." He said that Woods will likely be booted for three to six weeks depending on how aggressive the surgeon and Tiger decide to be, and that it will be months before he can expect to play.

The last time Tiger played competitively on the PGA Tour was at Royal Troon for last year's Open Championship. Two months later, Woods announced that he had microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement. Since then, he has competed at the PNC Championship with his son Charlie—where he walked—and for his Jupiter Links team in several TGL matches.

Since Woods seemed to be physically ready to play again at the Genesis, speculation was that he would try to play in another PGA Tour event as preparation for a start in the Masters. When he skipped the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament in which he was an eight-time winner, the thought was that he'd tee it up at the Players. But Tiger seemed to close the door to that last week after his final TGL start one week ago.

"This is the third time I've touched a club since my mom passed," Woods said that night, "so I haven't really gotten into it. My heart's not really into practicing right now...once I start probably feeling a bit better and getting into it, I'll start looking at the schedule."