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DUBAI. – Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic before yesterday’s second round because of a back problem, the latest blow as he struggles to regain the form and fitness that made him a golf great. The 41-year-old American is on the comeback trail after a 16-month lay-off following back surgery but suffered a back spasm overnight, forcing the 14-time major winner out of the tournament.
In Thursday’s opening round, Woods carded a five-over-par 77 which did not include a single birdie and left him outside the top 120. The 14-time major winner arrived in the Middle East having missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego last week, where he was competing in his first official PGA Tour event for 17 months.
During the past couple of years, the former world No. 1 has been sidelined with back pain and has undergone a series of operations. He has also suffered from serious leg injuries and his plan to contest four tournaments in five weeks may now have to be curtailed.
In addition to the events at Torrey Pines and Dubai, Woods was hoping to take part in the Genesis Open at Riviera (February 16-19) and Honda Classic in Palm Beach (February 23-26).
His agent Mark Steinberg remained upbeat when he spoke to the press yesterday: “He can move. He just can’t make a forward rotation in the swing.
“Spasms are a funny thing. I’m no doctor but they come and go. He feels it’s not the nerve pain, so that’s encouraging.
“He’s got to get the spasms to calm down. He has his trainer here and he’s been working on him for the past several hours.
“He thinks the short-term prognosis is strong based on the fact that it’s not that nerve pain that I alluded too.
“I’m not aware it happened last week and it came out of nowhere. He told you guys after the round yesterday there was no pain and I saw him before he went to dinner last night and he said ‘no pain’
“But he feels terrible that he can’t finish off today.”
After his opening round on Thursday, Woods had told reporters he was not in any pain, as he trailed leader Sergio Garcia by 12 strokes.
Sky’s golf analyst Rich Beem told Sky Sports News yesterday: “It’s a major setback for Tiger who has been itching to get back for months.
“He just didn’t seem comfortable in round one. The worst case scenario is he’s done and who’s knows for how long.”
The Dubai showpiece suffered a second setback when, hours after Woods pulled out, high winds caused play to be suspended for the day.
Winds gusting over 36 miles (58km) per hour hauled down trees at Emirates Golf Club and blew large amounts of sand and moved balls on the green.
The European Tour called off play at 2:25pm.
When the siren sounded South Africa’s George Coetzee was in the middle of an unbelievable round given the conditions – he was three-under for the day through eight holes to top the leaderboard at nine-under par.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia, the overnight leader, was one-under for the day after five holes to take his total to eight-under par.
European Tour tournament director Mike Stewart said: “We’ve had a fairly challenging day today with the wind.
“It was very unsafe and it was unplayable so we brought the players off the golf course in the interests of play and safety to the spectators as well.”
Coetzee agreed with the decision, saying: “Just before suspension we saw this one tree go down. You get a warning it’s about to collapse and it starts squeaking.
“I was walking under the trees hearing the squeaking and thinking: this could be me. It’s a little bit dangerous out there.”
Play will restart today and organisers are still hopeful of completing 72 holes by tomorrow evening. – Sky Sports.
Online Reporter