Spasms force Woods to back out
Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates yesterday with back spasms after shooting an opening-round 77 a day earlier, marking another frustrating start to his return to golf from a lengthy injury layoff. Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, said Woods had back spasms on Thursday night after dinner.
“Tiger Woods went into a spasm in his lower back fairly late last night, got treatment done early this morning for 31⁄ hours, but 2 can’t get it out,” Steinberg said. “He says it’s not the nerve, but back spasm, and he can’t get the spasms to calm down. He can move around, but he can’t make a full rotation in his swing.”
Woods made a comeback from multiple back surgeries after a 16-month layoff, and was expected to play four times in five weeks, starting with last week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.
The European Tour, without giving a reason, announced his withdrawal before Woods began his second round in Dubai. Last week in San Diego, Woods returned to the PGA Tour and lasted only two days.
Woods was coming off the longest layoff of his career as he recovered from the surgeries. He had last played on the PGA Tour in August 2015 at the Wyndham Championship, where he tied for 10th. He played in the Bahamas the first week of December in an unofficial event with an 18man field and no cut.
After Dubai, Woods has a week off before playing back-to-back weeks on both ends of the country, in Los Angeles for the Genesis Open) and in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for the Honda Classic.
Shortly after Woods withdrew, the tournament was hit by strong winds that brought down some trees and forced the second round to be suspended.
Martin Kaymer and Rafael Cabrera-Bello, tied at 4-under after both shooting 69s, had the lowest scores after two full rounds. George Coetzee was at 9-under after eight holes and overnight leader Sergio Garcia was at 8-under.
Tie at top in Phoenix
Brendan Steele and Byeong Hun An led the way at golf’s biggest party, Phil Mickelson had a classic Lefty adventure, and Justin Thomas cooled off in the desert yesterday.
An ran in a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 66 and a share of the lead at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Steele had a 67 to match An at 10-under 132 at TPC Scottsdale.
Mickelson bogeyed the final two holes for a 70 that left him 6 strokes back, while playing partner Thomas had a 73 to miss the cut by a stroke. Thomas was coming off a two-week break after sweeping two Hawaii events, and shooting 59 at Waialae, for his second and third victories of the season.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama was a stroke back at 9-under along with first-round leader Matt Kuchar, Martin Laird and Sung Kang.
Matsuyama bogeyed the 18th for a 68 after his 132yard shot to the back right pin fell short into a small bunker.
There were a lot of people to make noise. The crowd was estimated at 169,004, breaking the Friday record of 160,415 set last year and pushing the five-day total to 391,874. Today is the biggest day for spectators, with a record 201,003 packing the massive grounds last year. The week mark of 618,365 was set a year ago.