The Loop
Tiger Woods withdraws from Honda Classic during final round with bad back
By Alex Myers
Tiger Woods' tough start to 2014 didn't get any better on Sunday. Woods shot a 40 on the front nine of his final round at the Honda Classic before withdrawing on the 13th green at PGA National due to a bad back.
Through his spokesman, Glenn Greenspan, Woods cited lower back spasms that started during his warmup on Sunday as the reason for withdrawing. Before the 2013 Barclays, Woods said he tweaked his back from sleeping on a soft hotel mattress. In the final round of that tournament, he went to his knees in pain after hitting a shot on the 13th hole, but finished the event and played the rest of the FedEx Cup Playoffs as well as the Presidents Cup.
Woods was five over when he withdrew, having just made a fourth consecutive par to start his back nine. Woods last withdrew from an event during the final round of the 2012 WGC-Cadillac Championship.
The mid-round withdrawal means Woods is ineligible to win a 10th Vardon Trophy -- an award given to the player with the season's best scoring average on the PGA Tour. He was scheduled to defend his title at Doral next week, but in a statement said it's "too early to tell," if he'll play.
On Saturday, Woods seemed to be coming out of his recent slump, shooting a 65 to give himself an outside chance of contending on Sunday. But Woods made a double bogey and two bogeys on his first four holes on Sunday to tumble down the leader board.