Golf:Struggling Tiger Woods pulled out of The Players Championship, golf's richest event, on the seventh hole of his final round at Sawgrass today. Complaining of a stiff neck, Woods had dropped from four under par to two under and from 45th place to 51st when he told playing partner Jason Bohn he was quitting.
The last time he did it during a round was as an amateur at the 1995 United States Open.
It came on the day he was in danger of losing his world number one spot to Phil Mickelson, although for that to happen the Masters champion had to take the title from five strokes behind leader Lee Westwood.
"I've been playing with a bad neck for quite a while," Woods said. "I've been playing through it. I can't play through it any more.
"I'm having a hard time with the pain. There's tingling down my fingers, on the right side."
The 14-times major champion said he had first experienced the pain before last month's US Masters where he returned to the game after a self-imposed break of five months and tied for fourth in the year's opening major.
"It's on the backswing, downswing, follow through," Woods added, referring to the pain. "Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion, it's downhill from there."
This was the third event of Woods’ return from personal issues which sent him into hiding in November.
At Augusta a month ago he amazed most people by managing a fourth place finish, but in the Quail Hollow Championship in North Carolina last week he crashed out by a massive eight shots after a second round 79.
Woods finished his third round 71 yesterday with two bogeys and he was struggling again on his return.
Three putts on the short fourth brought his first bogey and two holes later he carved his drive into the lake and dropped another shot.
Another wild drive came on the seventh and after failing to find the green from there he called a halt.
If Woods had continued he was almost certain to finish outside the top 30 at two consecutive tournaments for the first time in his professional career.
Westwood had only to look at what happened to Robert Karlsson, his predecessor as European number one, to realise he had a hard day’s work in front of him at windy Sawgrass today.
Karlsson, winner of the Qatar Masters in January, dropped to last of the 70-strong field left in — until Woods withdrew injured, that is — when he ran up a quadruple bogey nine at the long 11th.
Going for the green in two he found the lake on the right, pitched back into the water with his fourth shot and then compounded that blunder by three-putting.
The Swede finished with a 79 for an eight over par total was was 22 shots behind Westwood as he golfer prepared to defend his one-shot lead (14 under) over Australian Robert Allenby.
Given the conditions a drama-packed conclusion was in prospect as Americans Brett Quigley and Troy Merritt had already double-bogeyed both the final two holes. The short 17th is a near island green surrounded by water, while the par four 18th has a lake running down the entire left-hand side.
Graeme McDowell, who started on seven under, opened with eight straight pars and remains well down the pecking order.