Woods withdraws from event in Dubai

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday with back spasms after shooting an opening-round 77 a day earlier, marking another frustrating start to his return to golf.

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday 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 3 1-2 hours, but 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 after multiple back surgeries after a 16-month layoff, and was expected to play four times in five weeks, starting from last week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.

The European Tour, without giving a reason, announced his withdrawal on Friday before Woods began his second round in Dubai.

After his opening round, Woods said: “I wasn’t in pain at all ... I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”

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. But George Coetzee was at 9 under after eight holes at the Emirates Golf Club and overnight leader Sergio Garcia was at 8 under.

Phoenix Open

Brendan Steele and Byeong Hun An shared the lead in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, while Justin Thomas cooled off in the desert in Scottsdale, Arizona. An made a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 66, matching Steele at 10-under 132 at TPC Scottsdale. Steele had a 67.

Thomas had a 73 to miss the cut by a stroke. He was coming off a two-week break after sweeping the 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.

The crowd was estimated at 169,004, breaking the Friday record of 160,415 set last year.