Coetzee’s desert storm, Tiger out

DUBAI: South African George Coetzee was leading the Dubai Desert Classic by one shot yesterday when the second round was suspended because of high winds.

Coetzee picked up three strokes in his first eight holes to move to nine under par, one ahead of overnight leader Sergio Garcia.

The windy conditions added to a difficult day for tournament organisers following the withdrawal of former world number one Tiger Woods because of a back injury.

“We’ve had a fairly challenging day today with the wind,” tournament director Mike Stewart said.

“Winds increased during the course of lunchtime into the early afternoon to the point where we had gusts approaching 60 kilometres an hour.”

German Martin Kaymer and Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello were the clubhouse leaders on four-under-par after matching rounds of 69.

Woods, a 14-times Major champion, pulled out of the tournament before the second round started after carding a five-over-par 77 on Thursday.

Woods’s agent Mark Steinberg said the player started to feel pain on Thursday night and regretted having to pull out.

“He went into a spasm in his lower back after dinner,” Steinberg told reporters yesterday. “We had treatment starting very early this morning for the three, three and half hours, but can’t get the back spasm to calm down. He feels terrible.”

Steinberg said the problem was not the same nerve pain that caused Woods’ lengthy absence from the sport.

Appearing for the eighth time in Dubai, where he has won twice before, the 41-yearold Woods looked out of sorts in his opening round as he continued his comeback at the European Tour event.

His chances of avoiding another early exit looked slim on Thursday, however, with the American appearing to be in some discomfort as he struggled to find a rhythm.

After his round, Woods said he had not felt any pain on the course but failed to even make it to the practice range yesterday, withdrawing from the event a distant 12 shots behind overnight leader Sergio Garcia.

Woods also looked out of sorts two weeks ago in the Farmers Innsurance Open, his first outing in a PGA Tour event in 17 months. He missed the cut there by a comfortable margin. – Europeantour.com