Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods underwent surgery Tuesday after rupturing his left Achilles tendon while ramping up training and practice at home, he announced in a statement on X.
Woods, 49, said Dr. Charlton Stucken of the Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida, performed a “minimally invasive” Achilles tendon repair.
The surgery went smoothly, and we expect a full recovery,” Stucken said in a statement.
Woods said he was back home in Jupiter, Florida, and plans to “focus on my recovery and rehab.” A timeline for his return to competition wasn’t immediately known.
The five-time Masters champion will undoubtedly miss the first major of the season, which will be played April 10-13 at Augusta National Golf Club.
Woods hadn’t competed in a PGA Tour event this season following the death of his mother, Kultida, on Feb. 4. He had entered the field for the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines outside San Diego but withdrew, saying he wasn’t ready to compete after her death.
He last competed in a tour event when he missed the cut at The Open at Royal Troon Golf Course in Scotland in July.
Woods has competed in four TGL matches this season, including Jupiter Links’ 9-1 loss to Atlanta Drive GC in the regular-season finale March 4.
In September, Woods underwent microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement in the lower back. It was believed to be the sixth surgery on his lower back in the past 10 years.
It’s not the first time Woods seriously injured an Achilles. At the 2010 Masters, Woods revealed that he tore his right Achilles tendon in 2008 and hurt it again several times in 2009 yet continued to play. He won six times during the 2009 PGA Tour season.
Woods suffered serious injuries to his right leg, foot and ankle in a February 2021 car wreck near the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, California, about 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. Woods told reporters that surgeons nearly had to amputate his right leg because the injuries were so severe, and he underwent multiple surgeries to repair it.