Tiger Woods withdraws from the Open

FROM BBC SPORT WEBSITE

 

Former world number one Tiger Woods has confirmed he will miss this month's Open Championship at Sandwich because of his troublesome left leg injury.

The 35-year-old has not played competitively since suffering a recurrence of the injury at the Players Championship in mid-May.

"Unfortunately, I've been advised that I should not play in the British Open," Woods said on his official website.

Woods has 14 major titles, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.

Despite slipping to 17th in the current world rankings, Woods insisted: "I think my best years are still ahead of me and I'm very confident and optimistic about the future.

"I am only going to come back when I'm 100% ready. I do not want to risk further injury.

"In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have competed at the Players, but it's a big event and I wanted to be there to support the tour. I've got to learn from what I did there and do it right this time and not come back until I'm ready."

Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club which organises the Open Championship, said: "I know how disappointed Tiger is not to be able to play in the Open this year.

"Naturally, we are sorry that a player of his calibre isn't able to join us at Royal St George's, but we wish him well in his recovery and hope to see him back soon, competing in front of the fans that love to see him play the game."

Woods, who was also recently forced to miss his first US Open since 1994, has been plagued by injury problems for much of the last three years.

Following his memorable US Open win in 2008, his most recent major title, Woods revealed he had a double stress fracture in his left tibia and also added that he had been playing for almost a year with a torn ligament in his left knee.

He subsequently had surgery and missed the next eight months, including that year's Open and PGA Championships.

Woods took five months away from golf in 2009/10 after his much-publicised marital problems but returned for the 2010 Masters.

He had Achilles trouble in late 2010 before suffering a sprained left knee and a mild strain to his left Achilles tendon after hitting out of the pine straw at this year's Masters at Augusta.

Although he returned for the Players Championship at Sawgrass, Woods - who has not won a tournament since the Australian Masters in November 2009 - played only nine holes, dropping six strokes in the process, before withdrawing from the event.

Irishman Padraig Harrington, who won the last two majors of 2008 during Woods' enforced absence, described the news of the American's latest absence as "unfortunate for the game of golf and more unfortunate for him.

"He still is the name we would look out for the most. It's not that we want him to turn up and win, but it would be nice to have him there and bring the buzz he does.

"It's a good feeling when you go down the stretch with Tiger and it's a great feeling when you beat him.

"He certainly pushed everybody else along. I'm looking forward to him getting back and disappointed he's not there."

Australian Brendan Jones was first on the reserve list to replace Woods but he declined the invitation so American Jason Dufner will fill the vacancy at Sandwich. 

I think that people will probably say so what? There's more potential for great golf coming from the Europeans, predominantly our shores. I think (sadly) that everyone has been waiting for a Tiger comeback but we've only had glimmers.

It does appear that these injuries Tiger is suffering from could prevent him from playing too much golf in the future.

He's not been right for quite a while now.

Hopefully he will get fit again and start playing the kind of golf we know he is capable of.

Russ

As much as I admire Tiger and love watching him , his poor performance at the Masters and no show at the US open the first two majors have not been far from damp squids, but get well soon!

It's a shame really, but I would rather watch a fully fit Woods up against the current crop of top players than a 80% fit get destroyed again.

He needs to genuinely asses how long he needs to get fully fit again, if that means a whole year off than so be it.  I mean, it's not like he needs the money and he is still young enough to get back to his best.  He is still capable of being the best in the world, but I hope he realises that the competition is a bit stiffer and there's a lot more of it now.

Wouldn't it be good if he chose to do the European tour to do his comeback if he felt that the run of the mill US tour wasn't a stern enough test....

I agree with Tim, would love to see him back at 100% to really challenge this European domination we have going on at the minute.

I feel he is doing the right thing however and taking as much time off as possible and if that means he misses two majors, three majors or the rest of the season then so be it.

He has already said that he won't come back until 100% ready. A friend of mine works at Isleworth and he says that he see's him hitting balls everyday so a comeback can't be far off and I'll look forward to him being back in tournament golf.