What Tiger Woods Had to Say Tuesday Before The Players Championship
By: Bill Speros, author for Golfweek
Tiger Woods spoke to the media Tuesday ahead of The Players Championship.
Woods missed the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week due to a neck strain.
Woods played a nine-hole practice round Tuesday morning. “I feel good, man,” Woods said Monday when he arrived Monday at TPC Sawgrass. Woods spent nearly three hours putting, chipping and going through his entire bag on the range.
Tuesday, Woods, 43, expanded on the neck injury.
He said he noticed the neck ailment during the Genesis Open at Riviera. The pain worsened the following week during the WGC-Mexico Championship. “It’s not painful now,” he said. “It was gradually getting worse, and that’s just because my lower back is fused. The stress has to go somewhere.”
Because of that, Woods said he realizes he’ll be chasing the pain caused that stress throughout his body.
“It’s just the nature of the sport. If you have force, it’s got to go somewhere. If it’s not my back it’s my neck or my hip,” he added. “In a repetitive sport, you’re going to wear out something.”
The quick solution, he said, is to remain fit and flexible following his multiple surgeries and spinal fusion procedure.
As far as his immediate upcoming golf schedule, Woods remained elusive.
“We’ll see after this week,” he said.
The upcoming PGA Tour schedule features the Valspar Championship next week on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook north of Tampa and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play the following week in Austin, Texas. If healthy, Woods would likely play in one of those two events, then take the rest of the time off until the Masters begins on April 11.
Woods is scheduled to tee off Thursday at 1:27 p.m. from No. 1 on the Stadium Course and will be paired with defending champion Webb Simpson and Patrick Reed.
