Memories flashed through my head as soon as I saw the news of Tiger Woods’ single-car accident on my phone on Tuesday.
Oh no. Never again. A different Kobe Bryant.
Could it be that the Bryant tragedy was reoccurring only one day before the first anniversary of his funeral service? Was there going to be another premature departure of an aged local sports icon who had at last found peace? How much heartache was too much for one sports landscape?
As it happens, none of our darkest concerns came true. In these dreadful last thirteen months, a gunshot was avoided for once. Woods made his getaway unscathed. We got away from our sorrow.
Woods’ apparently speeding SUV tumbled several times and wound up in a gully off Hawthorne Boulevard in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. He was extricated from the car and rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. But he survived.
His injuries reportedly included a shattered ankle and two leg fractures, and he apparently spent the afternoon in surgery. But he survived.
Considering he hasn’t played this year after undergoing his fifth back surgical procedure in December — after only playing nine times in 2020 — the 45-year-old Woods may never play competitive golf again. But he survived.
