Painful decisions ahead for Woods
A scan this week will reveal whether Woods – still world number one after Phil Mickelson failed to win The Players Championship – has a simple neck strain or a more worrying bulging disc in his upper back.
Either way, though, the fact Woods quit on the seventh hole of his final round at Sawgrass on Sunday shows there is now a limit to what he is prepared to endure.
And long journeys on planes, even on luxury executive ones, may not be what the doctor orders, especially if there is the possibility of the journey being made longer by volcanic dust clouds.
This all comes on the back of reports he has been or is about to be served with divorce papers following the sex scandal that came to light last November.
His life just looks a mess right now.
Woods has until May 27 to enter for St Andrews, the course on which he won by eight in 2000 and by five in 2005, but there is nothing to stop him pulling out after that if he does not want to take any risks with his health.
As for the Ryder Cup, an event he missed two years ago following reconstructive knee surgery and for which he currently needs a wild card pick, he simply might not fancy the idea of two rounds a day in a Welsh valley so late in the year.
Remember Nick Faldo’s parting words as Europe’s captain?
“Don’t forget your waterproofs.”
Hank Haney, still the coach to Woods despite speculation to the contrary when he did not show up at the game’s richest event last week, says: “Tiger doesn’t make excuses, but I know it has been bothering him.
“I don’t know how bad. Tiger is a tough guy – he played the (2008) US Open on a broken leg, so when he says something is bothering him, it’s probably not real good.
“As for the short term he will have to wait for the MRI (scan) and he told me he would have it this week.”
Woods, who has never previously in his professional career walked off during a round, spoke briefly to reporters before receiving treatment on site and then heading home.
His website later posted this comment from him: “I absolutely hate withdrawing. It’s not what I ever want to do.”
A wrist injury led to him pulling out of the 1995 US Open in his amateur days, while illness saw him not return for the third round of the Nissan Open in Los Angeles in 2006 after he had made the cut.
There was no evidence at the weekend, though, of Woods going through the agonies of Torrey Pines two years ago when he grimaced his way to an incredible 14th major title with two stress fractures in a leg and a knee in such a bad shape that playing partner Robert Karlsson did hear it rattling.
Completing four rounds appeared a miracle, but Woods tied with Rocco Mediate and played 19 more holes before triumphing and then immediately going in for surgery that kept him out for eight months.
Sunday’s playing partner Jason Bohn even thought it might be a wrist problem when Woods walked over and told him he had had enough.
However, according to Woods, who was down in 51st place at the time: “I’ve been playing with a bad neck for quite a while.
“I’ve been playing through it. I can’t play through it any more. I’m having a hard time with the pain – there’s tingling down my fingers.
“Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion, it’s downhill from there.”
He added that it was hurting him “backswing, downswing, follow-through.”
Yet on Friday after he finished playing Woods was asked if he had any issues at all with his fitness.
“No, zero. Absolutely 100%,” he replied.
The fact he kept the problem quiet will not surprise those who heard him reveal at The Masters that in his recovery from his knee operation he tore an Achilles tendon and struggled with that for much of last season.
Pulling out on Sunday and dropping to last place as a result means the first time in his career he finished outside the top 30 in consecutive tournaments, having missed the cut by a massive eight shots at Quail Hollow.
Normally he would not be expected to play again until defending his Memorial title in Ohio at the start of next months, two weeks before the US Open at Pebble Beach.
He spoke on Saturday of needing more competitive rounds under his belt because he did not start this season until The Masters a month ago.
A fourth-place finish there was a wonderful effort given his time off and the scrutiny he had been under after revelations of serial adultery and weeks in therapy. That all started with the car crash outside his home in the early hours of November 27.
Woods suffered “a busted-up lip and a pretty sore neck”. The lip has healed, but maybe the neck has not.
In a few dramatic months, the 34-year-old’s pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 majors has hit the two obstacles that were always likely to prove the most difficult to overcome – private life misery and injury concerns.
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