ORLANDO, FLORIDA (AP) – Tiger Woods was less than a year removed from his own fight with an injured leg and the threat of amputation, so he felt a mixture of empathy and sorrow when he learned of Casey Martin’s plight.
Martin has Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome and played collegiate golf with Woods at Stanford. He shattered his right leg two years ago, necessitating an amputation in October.
“We were all quite grateful that the procedure went as smoothly as it did. “He didn’t lose as much femur as the doctors anticipated going into the treatment,” Woods said at the PNC Championship on Saturday. “I’m still in bad shape. It still aches, but people have no idea how much suffering that guy has lived in and how tough he is emotionally and physically because of what he’s been through his entire life and the amount of misery he’s lived in on a daily basis.”
Woods, who is competing for the first time in a year, was injured in a single-vehicle car accident outside of Los Angeles in February and required multiple surgeries on his right leg.
“The leg was in a bad way. Woods stated this week, “I’m glad it’s still attached.”
Martin has been the head golf instructor at Oregon since 2006, after suing the PGA Tour in 2001 over the usage of a golf cart in competition.
