Former world number one golfer Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the Masters due to injury after completing seven holes of his third round, tournament organisers said on Sunday.
Key points:
- The five-time champion finished his second round in cold, driving rain on Saturday to make the cut at three-over
- The withdrawal ends his streak of completing all 72 holes of every Augusta tournament he has played as a professional
- Woods is still hobbled by the effects of a 2021 car accident that nearly cost him his right leg
Woods, who was the last of 54 players to make the cut, was limping down the 17th fairway on six over par through seven holes when play was called off on Saturday due to bad weather.
The withdrawal ends his streak of completing all 72 holes of every tournament he has played at Augusta National as a professional, dating back to 1997.
The tournament said about 90 minutes before play was to begin that Woods, who is still hobbled by the effects of a 2021 car accident that nearly cost him his right leg, had withdrawn with an injury.
“I am disappointed to have to WD (withdraw) this morning due to reaggravating my plantar fasciitis,” Woods later said on Twitter.
“Thank you to the fans and to The Masters who have shown me so much love and support. Good luck to the players today!”
Plantar fasciitis is tissue inflation that causes pain in the heel.
He had limped through practice rounds early in the week and again during the first and second rounds, but it had become more pronounced as the weather worsened.
The five-time champion finished his second round in cold, driving rain on Saturday to make the cut on the number at three-over, extending his Masters streak to 23 straight and tying Fred Couples and Gary Player for the longest in history.
The 47-year-old Woods headed back out for the start of the third round as temperatures struggled to reach 10 degrees Celsius, and it wound up being a waterlogged slog.
Wearing a grey winter hat over a baseball cap, he started on the 10th hole with a bogey, added another at the 14th hole, and then had back-to-back double bogeys after finding the water at 15 and 16.
It was the first time Woods has had consecutive double bogeys at the Masters.
The 15-time major champion also withdrew before the final round of last year’s PGA Championship with what his agent, Mark Steinberg, described as pain and discomfort in his right foot.
That came hours after he shot 79 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in similarly cold and windy weather.
Woods has won 15 Major tournaments but only one — the 2019 Masters — in the past 15 years.
AP/Reuters