After missing six of seven fairways on Sunday, Tiger Woods withdrew from the Players, citing a neck injury.
Loyal GolfBlogger reader Martin called this one nearly exactly in an earlier post:
However, if Tiger fails to make the cut this weekend – my prediction is to forget about what he has committed to, and forget about the majors. He will have some “injury” which will take him out for the rest of 2010.
He made the cut, but was out of contention. Was it a real injury? No one will know for sure. It’s certain that stress can bring you to swing out of your regular arc—and that may cause some injury right there. But we may have seen the last of him this summer.
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Hmm. Just watched the golf channel update video on this. Says that Tiger claims it has been stinging since before Augusta. Has he said anything about it up until this point?
Dude, get with the program, take some Aleve like the rest of us and go play. I rarely start or end a round where something isn’t hurting at least a little. And I am usually the motive power for my bag as well; you have Steve to carry that.
Tiger played the US Open with a broken leg, I find it hard to believe he has an injury that could have him withdrawing from an event. Plus, where would he have picked up this injury? It isn’t like he’s had a grueling golf schedule lately. Wait, he never has a grueling golf schedule.
I think the heckling got to him this week and he was shamed, as he should have been, and just wanted to pack up and go home. Hopefully, he’s feeling some regret over that guy getting tasered. Really, unless the guy was waving around a weapon, he didn’t need to be tasered. What they need to do is water down the alcohol or use really small cups so the people don’t get drunk.
Martin, a neck injury can really hurt … even though it’s true that the ‘average golfer’ would play with it. but then we dont have to achieve the same level of perfection for 18 holes so it’s not as important to us.
for the injury, stress causes lack of or bad sleep which in turn causes neck and back tensions which may cause injuries… but he could be lying too …
considering the car accident and medical checkups he’s been through for that, it seems strange that this appears now. also he should have gotten it checked sooner and talked about it to the public. transparency is what we’re looking for from him now … in answer to the notorious commercial: “no dad, i havent learned anything”
Tiger shouldn’t feel bad about the tasering. The guy was drinking and acted in a hostile fashion to police. That’s enough to get you tasered these days.
I dunno – I’ve a feeling we’ll see him at the U.S. Open.
By the way, who’s the closest so far in their prediction as to where Tiger would play this year?
Fake or not, he threw in the towel because he didn’t have a chance to win. He has already proven that if he has a chance to win he will go against doctor’s orders and play with pain. Here, he was tired of missing fairways so he quit. Plain and simple.
For me the problem with this withdrawal is that it exacerbates an already tenuous relationship between Tiger and golf fans. That anyone questions his injury shows the credibility gap that he has created.
I think he’s injured, for the record. But given that, he should have just sat out the season until he was fully healed. I think coming back, playing poorly and now withdrawing has done more harm than good.
It’s gonna be a short and strange season.
One thing is for certain, Tiger’s off-course behavior has given people a license to dogpile on him. This can serve as a lesson for future greats of the game. Regardless of how good you think you are, take time to sign autographs for fans, don’t treat the press as if you control them, don’t be the only player to skip a memorial ceremony (like the one held in Payne Stewart’s honor at Pebble Beach in 2000), etc. Eventually, you’ll need compassion from golf writers and fans, and if you treat people the way Tiger has, you won’t get it.
Jim Dauer
Co-Founder, FullForesome.com
Golfblogger – “the credibility gap that he has created” Did you realize how funny that phrase even reads as you wrote it? Tiger and credibility- never the twain shall meet, ever again.
I can’t see the US Open. Just in case the injury is real, it has been getting worse over the past 4 weeks. Lets say he takes 4 weeks off from practice, that puts him out of every tournament including the Memorial. Maybe he could play Memphis the week before the Open, but the crowd will be brutal, and he has never played the course.
If the injury is a work (in the pro wrestling sense) – then Tiger still has to figure out how to play again. Maybe that is settling his marriage mess, maybe he has got to spend 3 weeks straight with Hank, maybe he needs to fire Hank and go somewhere else, maybe he needs to figure out if he even wants to play again. Whatever it is, is a month to sort it out and get back to the course?
And if he does show up at the Open, he is going to have his butt handed to him. He isn’t going to go in there with the USGA setup and have that crowd and do well at all.
I really think it’s ridiculous that people are criticizing Tiger on this. If it was faked, it doesn’t make sense at all that he would’ve even started the round.
And the “we haven’t heard about this…” logic doesn’t make sense either. Tiger always hides info, so the fact that he hasn’t talked about this shouldn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
I definitely think this could have been caused by stress, which in turn altered his golf swing, etc., but I have no reason to think that this was a fake injury.