Woods, winds wreak Desert Classic havoc
Print Edition
SOUTH African George Coetzee was leading the Dubai Desert Classic by one shot when the second round was suspended due to high winds yesterday.
Coetzee picked up three strokes in his first eight holes to move to 9 under par, one ahead of overnight leader Sergio Garcia of Spain.
The windy conditions added to a difficult day for organizers following the withdrawal of former world No. 1 Tiger Woods because of a back injury.
“We’ve had a fairly challenging day today with the wind,” tournament director Mike Stewart told the European PGA Tour website.
“Winds increased during the course of lunchtime into the early afternoon to the point where we had gusts approaching 36 miles an hour and beyond.”
German Martin Kaymer and Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello were the club-house leaders on 4 under after matching rounds of 69.
American Woods, a 14-time major champion, pulled out of the tournament before the second round after carding a 5-over-par 77 on Thursday.
His manager, Mark Steinberg, said Woods had back spasms on Thursday night after dinner.
“Tiger Woods went into a spasm in his lower back fairly late last night ... got treatment done early this morning for 3 1/2 hours, but can’t get it out,” Steinberg said. “He says it’s not the nerve, but back spasm, and he can’t get the spasms to calm down. He can move around, but he can’t make a full rotation in his swing.”
Woods made a comeback from multiple back surgeries after a 16-month layoff, and was expected to play four times in five weeks, starting from last week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.
The European Tour, without giving a reason, announced his withdrawal yesterday before Woods began his second round in Dubai.
Last week in San Diego, Woods returned to the PGA Tour and lasted only two days.
Woods never got anything going after starting with a birdie at the Farmers Insurance Open and didn’t come close to making the cut. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole on the North Course for an even-par 72 and missed the cut at Torrey Pines for the first time in his career.
Woods was coming off the longest layoff of his career as he recovered from two back surgeries. He had last played on the PGA Tour in August 2015 at the Wyndham Championship, where he tied for 10th. He played in the Bahamas the first week of December in an unofficial event with an 18-man field and no cut.
After Dubai, Woods has a week off before playing back-to-back weeks on both ends of the country, Los Angeles (Genesis Open) and Florida (Honda Classic).
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