The ‘creative idea’ Tiger Woods had in 2014 after back surgery to ensure he could still improve at golf in his garden

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Tiger Woods is set to continue his lengthy absence from golf after undergoing back surgery for the seventh time in his career.

Woods was consoled by Phil Mickelson after announcing the surgery this week, which fortunately was a success.

His recovery time is, however, unknown, with Woods having undergone Achilles surgery earlier this season.

Woods has managed to achieve stunning success despite his constant injury struggles, with his back arguably his most troubled area.

The area of his body was first treated seriously back in 2014, when the 82-time PGA Tour winner underwent surgery on a pinched nerve.

The creative idea Tiger Woods had to improve at golf after his first back surgery in 2014

Woods returned to action shortly after at the 2014 Quicken Loans National, ahead of which he was asked how the timeline of his progression looked right up to taking a full swing.

He replied: “Full swing? Depends what club you’re talking about here. The whole progression was putting first.

“Anybody who has had this procedure done, you can putt the next day. You can hop right out of the recovery room and literally you’re okay to putt.

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“But I didn’t… I wasn’t allowed to bend over and pick the balls out of the holes. So what we did is I kind of had a little creative idea is that we had normal-size holes in my back yards, and I sand-filled them.

“So I knew if the putt went in or not, but I never had to bend over and get balls out of the hole. We did that for a couple of months.

“Then it was chipping and pitching. And then we added, basically about ten yards every day to two days depending on how I felt, how much inflammation was in the area.

“As I said, my physios and surgeon were in lock step with one another and open communication. Some days, we’ll stay here for a couple of days and other days, you can go ahead and progress the next day.

“That’s how it went to the point where I was out there hitting drivers a couple of weeks ago, and then started playing golf.

“I wanted to knock off a little bit of rust on the range before I actually went out there and tried not to embarrass myself on the golf course, and I was able to do that, got some holes in. Started feeling comfortable doing that.”

How Tiger Woods felt about people worrying he had returned from back surgery too soon

Woods shot 74 and 75 in his first two rounds of the Quicken Loans National, which wasn’t enough to help him reach the weekend.

But he certainly made major strides in being able to return to competitive action, which he can hopefully do once more after his latest setback.

There were indeed fears about such an early return from his first back surgery, but Woods alleviated those fears when asked for his response to those who worried he was coming back too soon.

He said: “Well, I think it always depends on obviously the person’s healing capabilities as well as the physios that they are involved in as well as the surgeons.

“I have great trainers, great physios, and they have been lock-step with my surgeon the entire time, and we have done all the protocols week after week.

“We are always on calls, chatting with one another to see what the next step is going to be. As I alluded to when I first came here for the press conference, that we were… I was only chipping and putting, but that was going to be expanded.

“We had a game plan for how we were going to do that, and we did it, and I’ve been able to play and hit balls and hit drivers and go out there and do whatever I wanted to do.”

Due to his back issues, Woods was limited to just seven events in the 2014 season, in which he secured just one top 25 place.

He failed to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs, and missed the cut at the PGA Championship in his final start of the season.