On the heels of Tiger Woods return to the 2014 PGA Tour season at the Hero World Challenge, we analyze other golfers who have come back from injury in the past:

1.  Phil Mickelson

In March of 1994, Phil collided with a tree while skiing in the Arizona Snow Bowl in Flagstaff, resulting in a fractured left leg and ankle. Although he went on to miss the 1994 Masters, Phil has gone on to win five major championships, the first being his 2004 Masters victory.

Phil still has a metal rod in his left femur from that skiing accident.

2.  Ben Hogan

After surviving a head-on car collision with a Greyhound bus, which caused serious injuries to his entire body and resulted in fatigue problems for the rest of his life, he won the 1950 U.S. Open, only 16 months after being released from the hospital. Hogan went on to win five more majors in his career, despite never playing a full PGA Tour season after the crash.

3.  J.B. Holmes

After undergoing brain surgery in 2011 to address balance issue, ankle surgery in 2013 due to a roller-blading accident and elbow surgery that same year, J.B. Holmes finished in the top 20 in five of his first six starts in 2013. In Holmes seventh start of the 2014 season he won the 2014 Wells Fargo Championship.

4.  Ernie Els

In July of 2005, Ernie tore ligaments in his knee while tubing behind a speedboat in the Mediterranean. Ernie was forced to miss the remainder of the 2005 season but would finish third in the 2007 PGA Championship and eventually won his fourth major at the 2012 Open Championship.

5.  Paul Azinger

Through the end of the 1993 season, Azinger had 11 PGA Tour victories from 1987 through 1993, including a PGA Championship. At the end of the 1993 season, Azinger was diagnosed with cancer in his shoulder. Azinger battled back and eventually won a PGA Tour event in 2000 and was a member of the 2002 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

6.  Henrik Stenson

Although Henrik was never physically injured, he did suffer a large psychological setback in 2009, after losing as much as $7 million to a ponzi-scheme ran through one of his own sponsers, Stanford Financial Group. By 2012 he had fallen to 230 in the world rankings but battled back to finish 2013 as the third ranked player in the world.

7.  Steve Jones

Jones had won four time in the PGA Tour before he suffered join and ligament damage in a 1991 dirtbike accident. In 1996, he needed a sectional qualifier to make it into his first U.S. Open which he went on to win.

8.  Jimmie Johnson

The six-time NASCAR Cup Series champion suffered one of his only injuries in his career on a golf course. At a charity golf tournament in December of 2006, Jimmie Johnson broke his wrist after falling off the roof of a golf cart in his attempt to “surf” the golf cart. He later admitted that “a few adult beverages might have been involved in the incident”.

9.  Tiger Woods

Tiger knows how to recover:

December 2002: Woods had surgery to remove fluid from around his ACL in his left knee but despite being sidelined for a few weeks, Tiger won his first start back at the 2003 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.

2008 Season: In April of 2008, Woods has arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and goes onto win the U.S. Open in June of that year. After the U.S. Open, Woods gets reconstructive surgery on the ACL in his left knee.

2011-2012: Woods struggles with ailing pains in his left knee and left achilles during the 2011 and 2012 PGA Tour seasons. By the middle of the 2013 season, Tiger had earned his way back to the top of the world rankings.