iG Reporter Slams Trunk With Tiger As He Withdraws From Farmers
iG's Alfie Lau was right beside Tiger as he walked to his car after making a(nother) withdrawal from a PGA TOUR tournament... this time from the Farmers Insurance Open. Lau was able to get a few quotes and photos before Woods' pulled out of the parking lot.
A two-and-a-half hour fog delay was a key factor in Tiger Woods withdrawing after only 11 holes on the North Course at Torrey Pines during the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open Thursday.
Woods double bogeyed the second hole, his 11th of the day after starting on the 10th hole, and then promptly shook hands with playing partners Billy Horschel and Rickie Fowler before he and caddy Joe LaCava hightailed it to the parking lot to load up Woods’ black Porsche Cayenne.
The day had begun with a one-hour fog delay and because Woods was in the third group going out from the 10th tee, he was working on his short game on the putting green and talking with fellow pros like Woody Austin. When the fog rolled back in, that’s when Woods’ problems began.
“I guess between those two suspensions (my back started acting up),” said Woods.
“It just never loosened back up again. And when we went back out, it just got progressively tighter. . . . It’s just my glutes are shutting off. Then they don’t activate and hence, it goes into my lower back. So I tried to activate my glutes as best I could, in between, but it just never stayed activated. Whenever we were standing there on the putting green to see if we were going to go play or not. And I tried to activate it before we went back out, but it just never did.”
Woods was wincing and grimacing noticeably during his front nine whenever he had to pick up his ball out of the hole and when he had to pick up his tee. A sloppy opening bogey, set up by another horrendous chip, was redeemed a hole later when Woods chipped in for par from just right of the second green.
Woods stellar putting kept him within striking distance of par and after he made his second birdie of the day on the 1st hole, his 10th of the day, things looked to be going the right way.
But on the short 329-yard 2nd, it all went to pot for Woods as his second shot, a chip from short of the green, flew well over the green, his third barely made it to the top of the hill and his fourth flew long, leaving him a lengthy bogey putt he had no chance of making.
By then, he had had enough and so the chase through the parking lot for Woods began.
As LaCava unloaded some detritus from Woods’ Ogio travel bag, Woods did a two-minute media scrum before backing his Porsche out and leaving the course alone. With Woods not scheduled to play the next two stops in California, it looks like March before we’ll see him tee it up again.
The Masters and the rest of the Majors in 2015 look like hopeful dreams for Woods right now.
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