DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday with back spasms after shooting an opening-round 77 a day earlier.
Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, said Woods suffered from 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.”
“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 in Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.
The European Tour, without giving a reason, announced his withdrawal on Friday (late Thursday PT) before Woods began his second round at Dubai.
After Woods’ 5-over-par opening round, he said “I wasn’t in pain at all … I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”
Missing fairways, missing greens and piling up the putts, the 14-time major winner failed to record even one birdie in his opening round at Emirates Golf Club.
“I left probably about 16 putts short. I just couldn’t get the speed of these things,” said Woods, a two-time champion.
He would finish in a tie for 121st, 12 shots behind first-round leader Sergio Garcia (65).
Woods started on the 10th hole and hit only 10 fairways and 11 greens in regulation. He needed 33 putts to complete his round.
“I just could not hit the putts hard enough. I left every putt short,” Woods said. “What I thought was downgrain, downwind, would be quick, downhill, and I still came up short. Into the wind, uphill putts into the grain, I put a little more hinge on it going back to try to get a little more hit to it, and it still didn’t work.”
Strong wind was forecast for Friday, making the prospect of picking up some strokes in the second round difficult.
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