Sore Woods needed rest

TIGER Woods blitzed the Sunday singles at the Presidents Cup with a body so sore he had to shelve plans to play the day before.

There was a collective groan around Royal Melbourne last Saturday when Woods, captain of the US team and their best player on Thursday and Friday, confirmed he wouldn’t play in the afternoon session.

Woods, 43, had already skippered the morning fourball but with his team trailing 9-5 the plan was for the Masters champion to play in the afternoon and help rally the US. But Fred Couples, one of three assistant captains with Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson, said Woods surprised them during the morning and said he couldn’t play.

Woods has been bothered all year by physical ailments from his surgically fused back. He also had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in August.

Couples said the news, after

Woods won both matches on Thursday and Friday, made him want to “throw up”.

“At about 10 o’clock, [Woods] said, ‘Guys, my body is not going to let me go. I’m not going to play this afternoon’,” Couples said on his Sirius XM Radio show.

“Of course, Stricker hopped on and said, ‘Tiger please, can you go in right now and get loose and warm.’

“He said, ‘Strick, I can’t do it.’ Zach said, ‘Tiger, are you sure, you sure?’ [Woods] said, ‘I believe in the team,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, so do I, but I believe that you need to be playing’.’

“It was maybe the first time I’ve ever worn a headset, and maybe the first time I’ve ever wanted to throw up with the headset on.”

Despite Woods not playing, the US rallied in the second session on Saturday and closed the gap to 10-8.

“There was like a 10-minute gasp and then we got over it,’’ Couples said. “We regrouped and made a new team and they went out and won.’’