SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods’s latest comeback suffered another setback Thursday when he quit after 11 holes of his opening round at the Farmers Insurance Open, citing a stiff back.
Six days after saying that his surgically repaired back was fine and that it was not an issue anymore, Woods hit his tee shot on his 12th hole — a par 3 — onto the green but did not hit the putt. In a scene that has become depressingly familiar, he shook his playing competitors’ hands before being whisked off to the parking lot in a cart.
Woods, 39, was two over par at the time. After making bogeys on two of his first three holes, he had battled back to even par after 10 holes. The last score he recorded was a double bogey set up by a bad tee shot and three poor chips.
Nicholas Thompson posted an eight-under 64 on the North Course to take the early lead before play was suspended because of darkness.
It was the third time Woods has withdrawn in his past eight competitive starts dating to last March. In that span he has also missed three cuts. In his first 296 starts as a pro, Woods failed to finish a round three times and withdrew before a round twice (in 1996 because of a back injury and in 2006 because of influenza).
Woods, who was grouped with Billy Horschel and Rickie Fowler, was in the third threesome off the 10th tee. The start of his round was delayed two and a half hours because of patchy fog. He said his back started to tighten up as he stood on the practice green in the cool, moist air, waiting for updates.
Woods described the onset of the tightness as my glutes shutting off and then they don’t activate and, hence, it goes into my lower back.
Before he walked off the course, Woods bore little resemblance to the player who had won this tournament seven times. He hit loose iron shots and more mediocre chip shots. One of the few highlights was a chip-in on his second hole, leading several fans in his gallery to exult, Tiger’s back!
Yes, Tiger’s back became the story of the day — just not in that way. The grimaces became more pronounced as he got deeper into his round, and Woods was not the only one wearing a pained look. Many of his fans had a hard time watching him miss the first four greens and hit only one of nine fairways.
He toughed it out a lot more than anyone else, Horschel said, adding: He’s a fighter. He wants to get the reps in. He wants to play well, and he kept trying to play through it, hoping that it would loosen up.
Woods’s last recorded round, an 82 on the second day of the Phoenix Open, was his worst as a pro. Afterward, Paul Azinger, a former major champion, observed on Golf Channel that Woods did not have the same game or deportment that he displayed in his prime. As his touch around the greens has grown frigid, his personality has warmed up considerably. During one delay between holes on Thursday, Woods sat and talked amiably with Fowler.
Tiger used to be uncomfortable if you were comfortable with him, Azinger said on the Golf Channel broadcast. Now he’s uncomfortable if you aren’t comfortable with him.
For the last 45 minutes of the delay, Woods stood on the green conversing easily with Horschel and any other player who wandered by. He did not disappear into the conditioning trailer to stretch or return to the warmth of the locker room.
The fog was tougher to read than the Torrey Pines greens, making it hard to guess how long the suspension would last. No sooner had the mist rolled out, prompting players to take their places on the tees, than it returned.
I was ready to go, Woods said. I had a good warm-up session the first time around. Then we stood out here and I got cold, and everything started deactivating again.
After Woods finished talking, he folded his body into a sporty tournament courtesy car. His next scheduled start is in three weeks, at the Honda Classic a short drive from his home in Florida. He said last week that his goal was to get in as many competitive rounds as he could before teeing off in the Masters in April. After his 82 last week and his withdrawal on Thursday, that goal seemed unattainable.
It’s very unfortunate; I think he’s doing a lot of good things in his game, Horschel said.
He added: I don’t think he’s that far off. If he can just stay healthy and be able to work on it, I think that we would see the results. And it’s unfortunate, like I said. It was tough to see him go, but he was in quite a bit of pain out there.
