The pessimists say Tiger Woods will never play pro golf again. They either forget Tiger’s will or ignore the lesson of another golfing great, Ben Hogan.

Tiger was asked at the 2018 Masters in Augusta if his recovery from severe back pain was the greatest comeback in golf history.

No, Tiger said, It wasn’t.

“I think that one of the greatest comebacks in all of sport is the gentleman who won here, Mr. Hogan,” Woods said. “I mean, he got hit by a bus and came back and won major championships. The pain he had to endure, the things he had to do just to play, wrapping the legs, the hot tubs and how hard it was for him to walk.

“That’s one of the greatest comebacks there is and it happens to be in our sport.”

The Hogan story

As golf’s top player, Hogan had won twice in January 1929 after 10 wins in 1948 and 37 titles in all.

It happened in the early morning of Feb. 2, 1949, Groundhog Day, Dave Shedlosk wrote in Golf Digest.

On a foggy, ice-covered road near Van Horn, Texas, a 20,000-lb. Greyhound bus collided head-on with the black Cadillac carrying Hogan and his wife Valerie.

Hogan jerked the car as far to the right as he could and dove across his wife’s body to protect her. That saved both their lives.

He escaped death as the Cadillac’s engine was pushed into the steering column and propelled through the driver’s seat.

Valerie had minor injuries but Hogan suffered a broken left ankle, contusions to his left leg, a broken collarbone, a cracked rib, a double pelvic fracture, head abrasion and internal injuries. It took an hour to extricate him and 90 minutes before an ambulance arrived. His doctors weren’t sure he would survive or ever walk again.

The road back

Hogan spent 59 days in an El Paso hospital, surviving a scare when blood clots formed in his left leg and invaded his right lung.

He endured severe leg pains, wrapped them in ace bandages and soaked them in Epsom salt baths daily.

He lacked the benefit of the medical advances available now but he was only 36, physically fit and without a history of injuries.

Woods is 45, only months after his 5th back surgery and surgeries on his right knee, the leg severely damaged in his car accident.

In May, Hogan told reporters his broken collarbone was the most worrisome.

“It wasn’t broken in a place where it can grow back easily,” he said. “I wonder if it will ever permit me to swing a golf club again.”

16 months after the accident, he won 5 more majors, 2 Masters, 2 US Opens and the 1953 British Open for a triple-crown season.

If Ben Hogan could do that, I’m not counting Tiger Woods out.

What’s your opinion? Please email me at Chronicle-Sports@yahoo.com .