Struggling Woods withdraws

Struggling Tiger Woods pulled out of The Players Championship, golf’s richest event, on the seventh hole of his final round at Sawgrass today.

Complaining of a stiff neck, Woods had dropped from four under par to two over and from 45th place to 51st when he told playing partner Jason Bohn he was quitting.

The last time he did it during a round was as an amateur at the 1995 United States Open.

It came on the day he was in danger of losing his world number one spot to Phil Mickelson, although for that to happen the Masters champion had to take the title from five strokes behind leader Lee Westwood.

This was the third event of Woods’ return from personal issues which sent him into hiding in November.

At Augusta a month ago he amazed most people by managing a fourth place finish, but in the Quail Hollow Championship in North Carolina last week he crashed out by a massive eight shots after a second round 79.

Woods finished his third round 71 yesterday with two bogeys and he was struggling again on his return.

Three putts on the short fourth brought his first bogey and two holes later he carved his drive into the lake and dropped another shot.

Another wild drive came on the seventh and after failing to find the green from there he called a halt.

If Woods had continued he was almost certain to finish outside the top 30 at two consecutive tournaments for the first time in his professional career.

Woods went straight to the fitness trailer on returning to the clubhouse area, but did speak first.

“I’ve been playing with a bad neck for quite a while,” he said.

“They want me to go get a picture on it next week – it might be a bulging disc.

“I’ve been playing through it. I can’t play through it any more. I don’t know what caused it. I know playing doesn’t help it.

“I’m having a hard time with the pain. There’s tingling down my fingers.”

He added that he first felt it before The Masters.

“Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion it’s downhill from there,” he said.

The pain was there, he further commented, “backswing, downswing, follow-through”.

That he had not mentioned it ought not to come as a surprise. At Augusta he revealed for the first time that in his recovery from his 2008 knee surgery he had torn his Achilles and it continued to be a problem.