Tiger Woods’s golfing and physical recovery has once again been thrown off course after the 39 year old withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines because of more back problems.
The 14-time major champion was two over par when he abandoned his first round after just 11 holes. His early departure comes just a week after he shot a career-worst 82 in the second round at the Phoenix Open, and this marks the third event in the last eight that he has withdrawn from due to injury.
Woods was playing in only his second tournament of the season after returning from surgery on a pinched nerve, which forced him to miss last year’s Masters and US Open.
He appeared to hurt his back after hitting his tee shot at the 12th – his third hole of the day – but carried on for eight more holes. Such was his pain, Woods even had to ask his playing partners, Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel, to help him pick his ball out of hole.
A two-hour delay for fog earlier in the round also didn’t help Woods’s cause, as his muscles cramped up.
Asked about the precise nature of the injury, Woods said: “My glutes keep shutting off and that causes me pain in my back. It got worse as we stood waiting on the putting green during the delay and I tried warming up my glutes, but it just wasn’t working for me. When we went back out, it just got progressively worse.”
Woods had started the tournament 56th in the PGA Tour rankings. His position will now drop further, decreasing his chances of featuring in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Doral at the start of March.
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