The entirety of the golf world was excited to see Tiger Woods return at the Genesis Invitational. Unfortunately, he abruptly withdrew from the tournament midway through his second round on Friday, which left those watching his performance extremely confused.
Woods completed his first round on Thursday with a one-over par scorecard, largely a positive considering he hasn’t played in a PGA Tour competition since the 2023 Master Tournament, which he was forced to withdraw from in the final round.
After that round, he detailed that he was dealing with back spasms that affected him in his final three holes, which clearly wasn’t a good sign of things to come heading into Round 2.
Despite this, Woods played the first six holes in Round 2 on Friday. Before teeing off on the seventh hole, he rode off in a golf cart back to the clubhouse, which obviously confused many watching at home.
https://twitter.com/WagersGator/status/1758606285132402964
Most assumed that Woods was seemingly withdrawing due to his lingering back problems that hampered him in Round 1. But interestingly, the official reason for his exit in Round 2 was ruled to be an illness by the PGA Tour Communications Twitter/X account.
Tiger Woods is a WD during the second round of The Genesis Invitational due to illness.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) February 16, 2024
Regardless, it’s obviously unfortunate to see Woods exiting from the tournament. Considering this is the second straight PGA Tour tournament he has withdrawn from, fans are now questioning whether his body can hold up going forward.
What a depressing video 😔
The Tiger Woods era is officially over. No reason he should’ve played in the first place if this was the end result. https://t.co/6sC8QQxZgG
— Nighthawk (@KrikorianB15) February 16, 2024
Tiger Woods is withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational after 24 holes.
Is it time to call it quits?
— Covers (@Covers) February 16, 2024
So hard to see this. The greatest of all time wants to be back out there healthy so badly.
Hopefully this WD (illness) is just a minor setback for Tiger Woods. pic.twitter.com/46H2L73hpl
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) February 16, 2024
Tiger Woods has made 6 official starts since the car accident. He has finished 72 holes just twice. One missed cut, 3 WDs.
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) February 16, 2024
It’s still obviously unclear what the specifics are about Tiger’s illness. But it seems to be a pretty serious situation. According to Christopher Powers of Golf Digest, an ambulance has seemingly arrived at the clubhouse of Riviera Country Club, which appears to be for Woods.
The ambulance does appear to be for Tiger
— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) February 16, 2024
This tournament was supposed to be a great warm-up for Woods as he prepares for some of the upcoming majors like The Players Championship and the Masters Tournament.
It now seems like his status for those tournaments is very much in question, which is truly saddening considering he is undoubtedly the biggest name in the sport today.
More importantly, hopefully whatever Tiger is going through at the moment which caused the withdrawal isn’t super serious.
[PGA Tour Communications on Twitter/X]
