Injuries to Tiger Woods golf swing have been exposed as the cause of his iron-swing woes at the PGA Championships.

At first, the signs are subtle, but they do exist. It's impossible to quit looking for Tiger Woods in 2022, when he's still healing from a near-fatal car accident.

On Thursday, as he was on his sixth consecutive bogey at the PGA Championship, the signs started to mount. It wasn't exactly a shank, but it was clearly hosel-related when Woods squirted a 2-iron down the right side from the tee. Those are not Tiger Woods's shots. There will never be a time like this again. Having witnessed enough heroics at this point, it's safe to say that anytime Tiger makes a shot like that, it's a red flag. It seemed like something was amiss.

This time, the issue was clearly seen on his 17th hole, the eighth. He stepped back onto his back foot, wincing, after another clanked shot, this one low, short, and to the right.

It's too heavy for me to lift," he said, pointing to his leg. When loading, pushing, walking, and twisting, "it aches to do any of these things." Just a game of golf. "I'll be OK if I don't do it," he said.

Because his body starts to lock down, he has difficulty loading on the backswing, which throws his downswing time off. Tiger's backswing must include a significant amount of trail hip loading (and the major reason he no longer wears Nike shoes).

Unless he's feeling better, he won't be able to accomplish it. To compensate for his poor backswing loading, he swings too early on the downswing, causing his body to move toward the ball. It leaves his arms dangling behind him as he scrambles to keep up. Consequently, his pushed shots tend to land to the right. The final result is unappealing and, more often than not, unpleasant.

There are variations between Tiger's healthy swings and the rest of his shots, even if the camera angles aren't perfect. He's more concentrated on the shot on the left. There are signs of structure in his body, with his knees and shoulders flexing in a way that indicates he is spinning in rhythm. In the right image, Tiger seems to be standing more vertically, with his left shoulder being higher than his right. His lower body has already let go, but his upper body is still holding back because he has to smash the ball into the ground.

Human vision cannot discern these subtle differences, yet there are certain obvious signs:

After he swings, Tiger rapidly falls back onto his right leg, indicating that his injured front limb cannot bear weight.

Things aren't looking good since his ball speed is slipping away.

After not loading properly, Tiger's hips spin out too rapidly, causing him to miss to the right on the downswing. This results in his arms being behind him.

During Tiger's most excruciating moments, he would raise his arms over his head. This indicates that he is able to totally spin through his stingers.