AUGUSTA, GA — Tiger Woods withdrew from the Masters tournament on Sunday. He was at the bottom, openly struggling to overcome years of injury woes.
Augusta National Golf Club announced Woods’ withdrawal 75 minutes before the restart of the third round, which was suspended on Saturday due to inclement weather. Woods completed his seven holes of the round at six over par and after making his cut for the 23rd consecutive Masters, he took the tournament score to nine overs, a record shared by Couples and Gary Players. tied.
and Post to Twitter After the Augusta National announcement on Sunday morning, Woods attributed his withdrawal to “recurring exacerbation of my plantar fasciitis.” Skipped entry.
Woods’ decision at the Masters came at a much more significant stage, marking the second time in less than a year that he withdrew from a major tournament. Last May, he left his PGA Championship after the third round with a par-9-over 79.
Woods, 47, has long struggled with injuries, especially since he nearly lost a leg in a car accident in February 2021. He returned to his golf tournament last April at the Masters and finished 47th.
“It’s been and will be tough,” Woods said Tuesday at Augusta National. He has won the Masters five times, most recently in 2019. same. I know that. So I can’t prepare and play as many tournaments as I want, but that’s my future and that’s fine. I’m fine with that.
For Woods, who suffered an open fracture of his right tibia and fibula in a shipwreck, the challenge in golf last year was less about his swing than the rigors of walking 72 holes over four days, especially the notorious hilly courses like Augusta National. . “Just walking and playing 18 holes was tough,” he said after missing the cut at St Andrews in July.
“People don’t know what I have to do and how many hours I have to train every day, back and forth, every day to do what I just did,” he said. Later in 2022, he said his year included undergoing “a few more steps to play”, without elaborating.
The next major tournament is scheduled to start on May 18th and will host the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club near Rochester, New York. In February, he said he would “hopefully” play in all four majors this year.
Bad weather interrupted play three times at the Masters, but tournament officials seemed confident the tournament would end on the long-scheduled Sunday. When the third round ended just before noon on Sunday, Mastersfield was down to his 53 man, with Brooks his Koepka leading John his Rahm by two strokes behind him.
At 11-under, Koepka bounced slightly on the back nine in the third round, including his first three-putt of the tournament at No. 17. Rahm also had trouble on the back nine and bogeyed on two holes.
At the end of the third round, Viktor Hovland was 8 under par after narrowly missing his birdie putt on the 18th green.