Philadelphia (USA), May 11: Tiger Woods said on Monday the neck injury hindering his game had put his upcoming schedule in limbo, then learned he will have to deal with it without the help of swing coach Hank Haney.
“A lot is up in the air still, which I don’t like,” said Woods, who is clinging to his world number one ranking by the skin of his teeth.
Woods withdrew during the final round of the Players Championship on Sunday — the first time in his pro career that he had pulled out mid-round in a tournament.
“For me not to play all 18 holes, that was as angry and as frustrated as I’ve been in a long time,” said Woods, who left the course after playing six holes at the Sawgrass TPC.
That disappointment followed a dismal showing the previous week at Quail Hollow, where he missed the cut by eight strokes.
Woods said he does not yet know exactly what the injury is, but he insisted it has “zero connection” to the mysterious car crash outside his home in November — which heralded the start of a sex scandal that drove him into self-imposed exile for five months and left his reputation in tatters. “Zero connection, absolutely zero,” Woods said.
Woods had said last month that the accident had left him with a “busted-up lip and pretty sore neck”.
But he said he believed his current problem began when he returned to practice after his break from golf.
“One of the reasons I think this thing flared up is beca-use I wasn’t conditioned to it. I’d been away from the game for such a long time, then came back and ramped up really quickly in order to try and play the Masters. The body wasn’t quite ready for that,” he added.
Woods said he first thought the intermittent pain was “no big deal”. But it has steadily worsened and now muscle spasms are preventing him from practising and playing properly. — AFP