Tiger Woods’ comeback nearly took a US Open detour.
After a car crash in February that required major leg surgery, Woods’ golf future is unclear. However, he had a unique opportunity to return next week to Torrey Pines, where he won the Open in 2008. NBC Sports offered the three-time U.S Open champion a chance to join their broadcast.
“Yeah, in fact, that’s exactly the line that I was thinking and we were all thinking is how good that would be, who better, if he couldn’t be there to play it, to voice it and have him a part of the show. But we were rebuffed,” host Dan Hicks said on NBC Sports media conference call.
“He didn’t want to do it, and I totally understand his situation. There is a lot going on in his world right now and there’s also a part of Tiger that doesn’t want to become this, I don’t want to, for lack of a better word, a sideshow at an event where we should be concentrating on what’s happening.”
Aside from an interview with Golf Digest, Woods has mostly stayed quiet since the devastating crash. US captain Steve Stricker recently said he has asked Wood to be a vice captain for the Ryder Cup team in September. Stricker said that Woods is in “a better place” now, but is unsure if he’d be ready for that commitment.
Hicks said that if Woods did commit to the broadcast it may have been a start to a slippery slope.
“Also, I really believe that if you said yes to something, it would just be a non-stop parade of asks, and he would have to just, you know, start telling everybody no,” Hicks said. “So, yeah, it would have been fantastic to have Tiger a part of it in that sense, but I understand that what’s going on in his world that he wanted to kind of keep it low key and stay out of the limelight for this one and just hopefully he’ll enjoy it at home watching it on TV and be inspired when we talk about what he did 13 years ago and that’s the best we can hope for.”