Word came down on Wednesday afternoon that Tiger Woods would have to pull out of the AT&T National, the PGA Tour event of which he serves as honorary host, due to trouble with his left elbow.

Woods said last week that the injury cropped up during The Players Championship, which he won for the second time at TPC Sawgrass in May. Things got so bad for his left arm that cameras caught him periodically wincing in pain after shots from the rough during the Open.

The announcement of that injury makes 2013 the sixth consecutive season in which Woods has missed time due to injury. That streak began famously in 2008, when Woods limped along the cliffs about the Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines en route to a heroic playoff victory over Rocco Mediate in that U.S. Open. That was his last major championship victory.

In 2013, a seemingly healthy Tiger augured potential major success after a career-long drought in golf’s biggest events. But this latest injury naturally raises more questions and doubt than it satisfies. In any event, in all likelihood Woods will be on the shelf for at least the next four weeks before the British Open Championship, to be held at Muirfield in Scotland July 18 to 21.

The aforementioned 2008 U.S. Open triumph was followed by season-ending reconstructive surgery on Woods’ knee, causing him to miss the final 14 tournaments. In 2009, he won in his second start back from injury (and five more times afterward), but would ultimately have the PGA Championship stolen from him by a surging Y.E. Yang at Hazeltine National in Minnesota — his closest call with a major championship since that time.

Every golf fan recalls Woods’ personal troubles that began in 2009 and continued into 2010 when he did not make his season debut until April, and would then have to withdraw from The Players with an injured neck.

There was more of the same in 2011, as Woods once again had to pull out mid-Players, this time with an injured Achilles, which would cost him about three months’ play in total. In 2012, another leg-related injury forced him to withdraw from the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Nevertheless, Woods would return to the winner’s circle a few weeks later at the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational, his first victory since 2009’s BMW Championship. He would win twice more in 2012, but no majors.

Now with a new — albeit less serious, by most accounts — injury to add to his curriculum vitae, Woods health raises legitimate questions about his fitness to win more major championships and to tie or break Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record of 18. Woods has been stuck at 14 majors for more than five years now. At 37 years old, he is statistically closer to Champions Tour eligibility than to the 21-year old Tiger Woods who blew away the field by a dozen shots to win his first major, the 1997 Masters. And as the injuries pile up, the number of fans who protest that he will indeed tie or surpass the Golden Bear’s continues to dwindle.

But in the end, he’s still Tiger Woods, and it would surprise few to see him go on another major-winning binge. But will that run begin at Muirfield? Like the answer to the question, “Is this the end of Tiger’s injury concerns?” little is clear and, as Woods is wont to say, “It is what it is.”