Tiger Woods withdraws from the Northern Trust before the second round, putting his status for the rest of the 2019 PGA Tour season in doubt
A short and to-the-point statement issued on Friday may be the last impression Tiger Woods makes on the 2019 PGA Tour season.
“I went for treatment early Friday morning, but unfortunately I’m still unable to compete. I’d like to thank the New Jersey and New York fans for their support and remain hopeful I can compete next week at the BMW Championship,” Woods said.
And with that, Woods’ appearance in the Northern Trust at Liberty National in New Jersey came to an end after just 18 uninspiring holes. Woods withdrew from the tournament before teeing off in Friday’s second round, citing an oblique injury. This is the first time Woods has had to withdraw in the middle of a PGA Tour event since the Farmers Insurance Open in 2015.
The 43-year-old was already complaining about not feeling well physically earlier in the week. He had to cut short his pro-am round on Wednesday and said afterward his back started to stiffen up, something which is only to be expected for someone who’s had four back surgeries.
“This is kind of how it is,” he said on Wednesday. “Some days I’m stiffer than others. Yesterday, I was out there hitting it great…and today I’m stiff. Hopefully, I’m not that way tomorrow.”
Woods didn’t display any outward show of discomfort on Thursday other than the fact he was clearly struggling with his game. Woods shot a four-over 75, 119th in the 122-player field and 13 shots worse than leader Troy Merritt. He made five bogeys and a double-bogey to offset three birdies while hitting just 56 percent of greens in regulation.
His poor showing at Liberty National continues an alarming trend for the fifth-ranked player in the world. Woods gave the golf world a moment it won’t soon forget at Augusta National in April when he won the Masters, his 15th major championship and first in more than a decade. That brought him up to 81 career PGA Tour titles, one shy of Sam Snead’s all-time record.
But Woods’ attempts at Snead’s record the past four months have been few and far between. The Northern Trust was just the fifth tournament he’s played since April. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship and Open Championship and finished well out of contention at the U.S. Open. His lone top-10 came at the Memorial where he finished tied for ninth but was still 10 shots behind the winner.
Woods has often said this year his plan was to cut back on the number of tournaments he would play, citing the fact he feels he played too much in 2018. But his long breaks between tournaments, including more than a month off after the Masters and U.S. Open, meant he often showed up for his next event rusty and in poor form.
He was attempting to do something in August he hadn’t done all year, play three straight weeks in the FedEx Cup playoffs. His early departure from Liberty National, though, may mean he won’t have to worry about that. Woods came into this week 28th in the FedEx Cup standings. He’s now projected to fall to 33rd, so if he doesn’t play at the BMW Championship next week at Medinah he won’t qualify for the Tour Championship, where he’s the defending champion.
The next event Woods is committed to is the Zozo Championship in Japan in late-October. That same week he’ll take part in a skins game against Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama. If he doesn’t recover in the next few days, golf fans will have to wait until then to catch a glimpse of him in 2019.