TIGER REVEALS BATTLE WITH NECK PAIN

TIGER WOODS spoke openly yesterday about the neck injury that caused him to pull out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week — and admitted he will have to manage it for the rest of his career. ‘It’s a consequence of the fact that I now have a fused back and that the stress has to go somewhere,’ he said. ‘Even though the lower back is now fixed, one of the issues of that procedure is there’s no movement down there so it’s very important for me to keep all the other structures pliable and that I stay as loose as I possibly can. ‘I have to accept I’m 43 with four back surgeries and four knee surgeries, that I’m going to have good weeks and bad weeks and I can’t push it any more. I did that earlier in my career and won tournaments, but I also cost myself a few years.’ Woods (right) felt the injury at the Genesis Open last month as bad weather forced him to play a lot of holes in a short time. He said: ‘It got worse playing in Mexico two weeks later, to the point where it was affecting my set-up, backswing and putting and I knew I had to take last week off.’ Woods declared himself pain-free for the moment and ready to play this week in the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship here at Sawgrass. Before his news conference he played nine holes and appeared to be swinging without restriction. He was upbeat regarding his preparations for the Masters in four weeks, although he could offer no update on whether he will play again before Augusta. ‘Let’s see how this week goes and whether there’s any flare-up,’ he said. ‘If there isn’t, I’ll play one more. I’m happy regarding Augusta. I was always going to play four or five events before the Masters and this is my fourth. I’ve got more consistent every time I’ve played and I feel like everything is headed on track towards April.’ When Woods has played this year, his good play from tee to green has been undermined by poor putting. Interestingly, for a man who likes to work it all out for himself these days, he had specialist putting coach Matt Killen overseeing his stroke yesterday. ‘Because I’ve been struggling with my posture through my neck injury, my putting has been off and I wanted to listen to what Matt had to say,’ explained Tiger. As I’ve started to feel better physically, the putting has definitely freed up.’ Woods tees off in the first round tomorrow alongside defending champion Webb Simpson and Patrick Reed.