After the disastrous second round of 82 in his comeback match on the tour last week, where his worst ever round of professional golf resulted in him missing the cut at the Phoenix event, Tiger Woods has found no more encouragement in his latest event, the Farmers Insurance Open. Woods decided to withdraw from the event at Torrey Pines due to further issues with his troublesome back, having not even completed his first round.
The fourteen-time major winning American called time on his round after just eleven holes, clearly not enjoying the experience neither from a physical point of view nor on the scoreboard, as he had already dropped to two over par.
Having made it to the green on the twelfth hole on a topsy-turvy round thus far, the 39-year-old legend of the game had a brief conversation with his playing partners (Billy Horschel and Rickie Fowler), before deciding that he could not continue and called it a day. His playing partners had noticed that he was having back issues, although Horschel praised his playing companion for how long he lasted, giving himself every chance for his back to loosen up before deciding it was not going to happen.
In a worrying trend for the superstar golfer, it was the third time in his last nine tournaments that a similar ailment had forced him to retire.
Woods had said only last week that his back issues were no longer a concern of his, but was demonstrating signs of distress early on in his round, clearly protecting the part of his back that was causing him issues.
He was not aided by a delayed start to his round due to fog on the course, which meant that he was pushed back two hours from the originally planned schedule.
After a quick-fire 90-second session with the attending media, where he explained that (referring to his back) "it just never loosened back up again" after the delay and "got progressively tighter", he exited the course in a courtesy car.
Woods' troubles were in stark contrast to the experiences of Britain's Lee Westwood in the Malaysian Open. The defending champion in Kuala Lumpur shared the lead at the halfway stage with Alejandro Canizares, three shots clear of the rest of the field.
