TIGER NECK INJURY PUTS HIS MASTERS TILT IN DOUBT
TIGER Woods knew how people would interpret his late withdrawal through injury from the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week, and duly tried to allay their concerns.
‘My lower back is fine, and I hope to recover from the neck strain that has bothered me for a few weeks, and compete in the Players next week,’ he said, in a statement on Monday night.
It did no good. Not when the Masters is only five weeks away. Not when you’ve got his injury record. Not when the last time he withdrew from an event and said he had no long-term issues, he ended up having a fourth back operation and wasn’t seen for 10 months.
All eyes, therefore, will be on the entry list for the Players when it is released on Friday. If Tiger’s name is in the field, then we can take his tweet at face value, and write this off as the sort of injury that happens when you’re 43 years old. If Woods’s name is absent, however, and he has to sit out another big event, at best it has to be seen as a significant blow to his hopes of winning the season’s first major. At worst, fears will inevitably grow as to whether he will be at the Masters at all.
For now, the game will hold its collective breath and hope for good news. Most likely, Woods picked up the injury at the Genesis Open in Los Angeles last month, where the weather played havoc with the schedule. After not playing Thursday, Woods completed 30 holes on Friday, 14 on Saturday, and 28 on Sunday.
Asked what he had to do to get ready for a 6.45am start each day Woods, with his fused back, said he set the alarm for 3.30am. It was noticeable the way his power diminished as each day progressed. Keeping up with Rory McIlroy off the tee on Friday for the first 18 holes, he was 25 yards behind him by the time sunset fell on Sunset Boulevard.
Missing out on Palmer’s tournament is not detrimental as such to Woods’s hopes at Augusta, but
he’s clearly feeling considerable discomfort to miss an event he’s won eight times. He was looking to this week and the Players to build up his rhythm after only three starts this season.
Now, if he’s physically able, he’s likely to add the Valspar Championship in Tampa — where he finished runner-up to Paul Casey last year — after the Players, before a fortnight’s practise and rest at home leading to the Masters.
Meanwhile, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has waded into the ongoing rift between players and the game’s governing bodies over golf’s new rules.
After another week of controversy at the Honda Classic, Monahan has written a memo to players on the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour and Champions Tour, reminding them that they had their chance to affect the rules during the consultation process.
Monahan also defends the Tour’s rules officials as ‘the best in the game’, but also encouraged players to ‘use your voice constructively during this process’”.
The R&A and USGA have already revised a rule which was only introduced in January after incidents on either side of the Atlantic, with China’s Li Haotong penalised two shots on the 72nd hole of the Dubai Desert Classic because his caddie was on a direct line behind the ball when he began to take his stance.
Five days later American Denny McCarthy was penalised for the same offence in the Waste Management Phoenix Open and although it was swiftly rescinded after an outcry from fellow professionals, Adam Schenk fell foul of the same rule last week.
That prompted Justin Thomas to become embroiled in an extraordinary exchange on social media with the USGA, whose PR account claimed Thomas had ‘cancelled every meeting we’ve planned with you’ and pointed out that the PGA Tour had been involved with the planning of the changes for seven years.
Thomas has been a vocal critic of the changes to the Rules of Golf which came into effect on January
1, calling them ‘terrible’ in his pretournament press conference ahead of the Honda Classic.
His mood was not improved when he bent the shaft of his nine iron after hitting a tree playing a recovery shot in the opening round at Palm Beach Gardens and was unable to replace the club mid-round, only to repair it.
‘You can just add that one to the list of rules that don’t make any sense,’ Thomas said afterwards.
However, on Monday the USGA wrote on Twitter: ‘After further and more direct conversations with @JustinThomas34, we realize he did not avoid a discussion with the USGA nor cancel any meetings. We value his and all players’ opinions and are committed to a productive dialogue as the golf world adjusts to the modernized rules.’
Thomas had said on Sunday he was ‘really hurt’ by the USGA’s initial response and that ‘the information they put out there wasn’t accurate in terms of me cancelling meetings and that doesn’t make me look good’.