"He made golf cool..."

It's hard to put into words what Tiger Woods has meant to the game of golf. But as a pro golfer and a minority himself, Tre Craig tried his best.

"Watching him at the (1997) Masters and seeing the Black people who worked in the kitchen in tears when he won, seeing how excited my grandparents were... it just made the game accessible," Craig said. 

From record prize money to record TV ratings, Woods' impact on the sport can't be overstated.

Craig is one of the tens of thousands of people Woods inspired to play golf -- and no doubt one of the many worried Woods may never play again.

Tuesday's horrific car crash may have left the Big Cat with his biggest challenge yet.

"Most of these kinds of injuries, even if things go well, you're looking for the bone to heal around three months," says Dr. Tyson Schrickel, orthopaedic trauma surgeon with Mercy Health. "Then there's the recovery as far as walking, then obviously there's recovery in terms of getting his golf swing back."

Dr. Schrickel estimates it could be a year or more before Woods could compete again. He's already faced five back surgeries and several knee operations along with off-course incidents.

Nonetheless, at age 45 and with many pros winning tournaments well into their 60s, it seems Tiger surely has more to accomplish. Fellow golf legend Ben Hogan came back from a near-fatal car accident in 1949 to win the U.S. Open a little over a year later -- so it's hard to imagine that Woods won't be back.

"He's big on not letting situations beat him," says Craig. "I still would never count out Tiger. I definitely think he's going to will himself back out there."