TIGER WOODS PULLS OUT OF NEXT WEEK’S MASTERS
Tiger out of season’s first major; Kang up 6 shots in Houston.
Tiger Woods won’t play in the Masters for the third time in the last four years, announcing Friday night on his website that rehabilitation on his back didn’t allow him enough time to prepare.
“I did about everything I could to play, but my back rehabilitation didn’t allow me the time to get tournament ready,” Woods said on his website.
He still plans to be at Augusta National, but only for dinner with past Masters champions on Tuesday night, just like last year.
Woods missed the Masters for the first time in 2014 because of the first of what would be three surgeries on his back.
And now the wait continues for Woods, once golf ’s dominant force, now its biggest mystery.
“I think injury has a lot to do with it, but the injury is not just his body, but his mind,” Jack Nicklaus said in an interview last month.
“Mentally, I think he’s had a hard time with what’s happened, because every time he turns around, he hurts himself,” Nicklaus said.
Woods said there was no timetable for a return.
“But I will continue my diligent effort to recover, and want to get back out there as soon as possible,” he said.
PGA Tour: Sung Kang shot a 9-under 63 to take a six-shot lead in a record-breaking second round at the Houston Open on Friday.
After shooting a 65 on Thursday, Kang was at 16-under 128 through two rounds, setting the 36-hole tournament record of 129 by a stroke, set previously by Blaine McCallister in 1993 and Curtis Strange in 1980.
The 29-year-old South Korean, who entered the week ranked No. 202 in the world, bested the tournament course record at the Golf Club of Houston by three strokes, topping Johnson Wagner’s 132 in 2008.
Kang’s 9-under on Friday matched the 18-hole tournament course record and helped him take the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history, topping the previous record by two strokes.
Hudson Swafford and Russell Henley were at 10 under after both shooting 5-under 67. Rickie Fowler, the leader after one round, slipped to fourth at 9 under after he followed Thursday’s 8-under 64 with a 71.
LPGA Tour: Norway’s Suzann Pettersen finished her wind-delayed first round with a 4-under 68 and added a second-round 69 at the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, Calif., taking a oneshot lead over six players after two shortened days at the first major of the year.
After an early end to Thursday’s play and a late start on Friday for cleanup from the windstorm, play was halted by darkness with 56 players still on the course. They will complete their second round this morning.
Rookie Nelly Korda shot a pair of 69s to climb onto the leaderboard, sitting one shot behind Pettersen in her first major as a professional. The 18-year-old Norda’s big sister, 24-year-old Jessica, is in the hunt at 3-under 141.
Champions: Joe Durant shot a 6-under 66 for a oneshot lead after the first round of the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic in Biloxi.
Durant made four birdies on the back nine in warm and sunny conditions to finish just ahead of defending tournament champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, Scott Hoch, Lee Janzen and Jay Haas, who are all tied for second after shooting a 67.