Tiger Woods responds to reports of a setback: 'Progressing nicely'

In a not-so-subtle retort to the social media firestorm that suggested he had a setback in his recovery from back surgery, Tiger Woods tweeted a 13-second video on Wednesday morning that showed him hitting a 9-iron shot on a golf simulator.

"Progressing nicely" was all he wrote.

Two tweets on Monday reported that Woods was having difficulty with his recovery and that he had trouble even sitting in a car. Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, strongly denied the reports in a statement, calling them "ridiculous and absolutely false.''

Steinberg said Wednesday that the video was shot just before 9 a.m. ET.

"This was meant more for all of Tiger's fans who had reached out since all of this erroneous reporting came out over the weekend that he was so disabled he had to sit in the passenger seat of a car,'' Steinberg said. "So many had reached out and wondered if this was the end and if this was true. This was meant to give the most recent update.''

Asked specifically what Woods is doing at this point, Steinberg said: "That's a fairly full swing. It's a full 9-iron that he was hitting. He's been doing some chipping, working his way to where he is at right now.

"It would be different if I had just said he's progressing and doing some chipping and putting. This is a bit more impactful and relevant to show it this way.''

Rory McIlroy chimed in on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon:

Woods, 40, has not played in a tournament since tying for 10th six months ago at the Wyndham Championship. A few weeks later, he had a second microdiscectomy surgery on his lower back. Six weeks after that, on Oct. 28, Woods had another surgery in the same area, although it has not been disclosed what exactly occurred.

When he last appeared in public at the Hero World Challenge in December, Woods said that he had not started rehab and didn't know when he would begin, and that he could not see "the light at the end of the tunnel.'' He did not rule out the idea that he might miss all of the 2016 season.

Since then, and as recently as Friday, Steinberg had declined to give updates on Woods' status. And he wasn't willing to go beyond what he said Wednesday, offering no timetable for a return to competition but at least acknowledging that Woods is enduring the rehabilitation process.