If you watched Tiger Woods walking gingerly at times around the Emirates Golf Club on Thursday, you wouldn’t be shocked by the fact he was forced to withdraw from the Dubai Desert Classic before the start of Friday’s second round of play.
Woods’ manager and confidant, Mark Stineberg, told those gathered that Woods experienced back spasms sometime after dinner on Thursday night. “He says it’s not the same nerve pain that’s kept him out for so long. He says it’s a back spasm and he can’t get the spasm to calm down, so that’s where we are,” he reported.
It may have been a good thing for Woods as high winds whipped the course on Friday and got so high at times that play was suspended. Woods struggled all day long in the first round in perfect conditions and shot 77.
Back at the Golf Channel, Brandel Chamblee had his own observations after Woods’ first round 77:
“I can’t help but think he look like an old man. He looks like the oldest 41-year-old man in the history of the game. There’s no vitality. This golf swing is a remnant of the swing he had seven years ago.”
Woods will return home for treatment and will have next week off before he heads to Los Angeles for the Genesis Open the following week.
