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Rozner: Fearing the worst, hoping the best for Tiger Woods

When the news broke Tuesday afternoon, and the pictures of his totaled car emerged, the first hope was that Tiger Woods had survived.

Anything else seemed trivial.

When it became clear that he was alive and in surgery, getting repairs for multiple leg injuries, it was impossible not to move quickly into a fear for his career.

And it's also hard to imagine a more selfish response.

But when you've been gifted the greatest of all time, in a lifetime that has also given us Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali, you just don't want it to end.

You want more. You always want more.

It's a ridiculous ask when Woods has come back so many times to give us more highlights, more victories, more greatness.

For all the times the experts insisted Woods could never win again, he has always come back to win again.

The return from spinal fusion to win in Atlanta in 2018, and then the extraordinary Masters victory in 2019, and another at the Zozo, cemented Woods' place as the best who ever lived, a tie for the most PGA Tour victories ever (82) to go along with his 15 majors.

You just don't want it to end. Ever.

But now he must rehab his damaged legs and almost certainly more damage to a very fragile back that underwent a fifth back surgery Dec. 23.

While serving as host of the Genesis Invitational at Rivera Sunday, he told Jim Nantz that he wasn't sure yet if he would be able to play in the Masters in early April.

"I'm feeling fine. A little bit stiff," Woods said. "I have one more MRI scheduled so then we'll see if the (disc) is scarred over finally and see if I can start doing more activities.

"But still in the gym, still doing the mundane stuff that you have to do for rehab, the little things before I can start gravitating toward something a little more."

Knowing Woods and how he plays his cards so close to the vest, you had to think he was probably already prepping for Augusta.

"God, I hope so, but I've got to get there first," Woods said on CBS of participating in the Masters. "A lot of it is based on my surgeons and my doctors and my therapists and making sure I do it correctly because this is the only back I got.

"I don't have much more wiggle room left here."

Translating after so many years of listening to him speak, the guess here was he would play the Masters and then pick his spots the rest of the season, not overdoing it like he has in the past as he searched for win No. 83.

Now, you have to wonder if his career is over. Again.

Keep in mind that he has always defied the odds and counting him out is probably a foolish idea until the man himself says he will never again play competitive golf.

It's also worth noting that after Ben Hogan's horrific car accident in February 1949, at age 36, his own doctors said Hogan would never walk again. Hogan not only came back, but also played some of the best golf of his life over the next decade, winning six more major championships.

But Woods is 45 years old and has been through so much physically that it's difficult to imagine him being able to find the magic yet again.

It's not an appropriate day to sum up this man's career or his impact on golf, but as word spread among PGA Tour players in Florida preparing for this week's event, it was as somber as if Woods had declared he was gone forever.

They remembered that he is the reason most of them took up golf.

He is the reason most of them are millionaires.

He is the reason there is so much money in the game.

He is the reason the Golf Channel has survived.

He is the reason millions watch the sport.

He is the reason millions play the sport.

He is all of the reasons.

Tiger Woods is golf and has been golf for so long that the game without him is unimaginable, a selfish response to a thought that we might never see him play the game again.

The proper response, of course, is to hope that he can live a normal life, play soccer and golf with his children, and enjoy all that he has earned by being the greatest of all time.

Like Ali and Jordan, the greatest must at some point leave their sports and leave us begging for more.

But that plea will have to wait for another day.

Max Homa poses with his trophy next to Tiger Woods after winning the Genesis Invitational Sunday. Associated Press
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