Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday with back spasms after shooting an opening-round 77 a day earlier.
Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, said Woods suffered from 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.”
“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 after 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 in Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.
After Woods’ opening round, he said “I wasn’t in pain at all ... I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”
Shortly after Woods withdrew, the course was hit by strong winds that brought down some trees and forced the second round to be suspended.
Martin Kaymer and Rafael Cabrera-Bello, tied at 4 under after both shooting 69s, had the lowest scores after two full rounds. But George Coetzee was at 9 under after eight holes at the Emirates Golf Club and overnight leader Sergio Garcia was at 8 under.
Woods withdrew before starting his second round with back spasms.
Kaymer criticized the decision to suspend play.
“Hard to understand the difference between the morning play and now, therefore even more surprised about the decision (at)EuropeanTour,” the German wrote on Twitter.
Coetzee, however, supported the decision.
“We saw this one tree go down. You get a warning it’s about to collapse and start squeaking. I was walking under the trees hearing the squeaking and thinking, this could be me,” the South African said. “It’s a little bit dangerous out there with the trees collapsing and stuff. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.”
PGA Tour
Brendan Steele and Byeong Hun An shared the lead in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, while Justin Thomas cooled off in the desert.
An made a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 66, matching Steele at 10-under 132 at TPC Scottsdale. Steele had a 67.
Thomas had a 73 to miss the cut by a stroke. He was coming off a two-week break after sweeping the Hawaii events and shooting 59 at Waialae for his second and third victories of the season.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama was a stroke back at 9 under along with first-round leader Matt Kuchar, Martin Laird and Sung Kang.
The crowd was estimated at 169,004, breaking the Friday record of 160,415 set last year.
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