PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Drama seems to pursue Tiger Woods with the relentlessness of the paparazzi that stalk his every move.
Woods suddenly withdrew from the Honda Classic Sunday after playing 13 holes of his final round at PGA National, complaining of lower back pain — a development that has left his status for next week’s WGC-Championship at Doral and even next month’s Masters in question.
Woods, who was 5-over-par on his first six holes (he shot 40 on the front nine), putted out for par on the 13th green, shook the hand of his playing partner, Luke Guthrie, and was whisked away in a white van to his car in the players’ parking lot.
Woods was accompanied by his skiing-star girlfriend Lindsey Vonn, who limped to the car wearing a brace on her injured right knee, his son, Charlie, and his caddie, Joe LaCava.
This latest drama comes one day after Woods, who struggled to make the cut on the number at even par, shot 65 in the third round to climb to 5-under and inch himself onto the cusp of contention. This was a significant contrast to two years ago at the Honda when Woods shot a final-round 62 and nearly chased down eventual winner Rory McIlroy.
“It’s a lower back problem with spasms,’’ Woods said through his spokesman Glenn Greenspan, who was one of the entourage that accompanied him off the course in the van. “It started this morning during warm-ups. Regarding Doral … too early to tell. I will get treatment every day to try to calm it down. Don’t know yet. We’ll see how I am. Wait ’til Thursday and see how it feels.’’
Woods called Sunday’s back ailment “the same feeling’’ he had at the Barclays Championship at Liberty National, where he was doubled over in pain on the 13th hole of his final round there, though he completed his round and finished second to Adam Scott.
“I noticed he was starting to kind of gingerly tee up the ball and pick up the ball out of the hole,’’
Guthrie said after his round. “He just came over and said, ‘I can’t go anymore, it was a pleasure playing with you,’ and I just said, ‘Take it easy, feel better.’ Pretty unofficial, uneventful.’’
Not exactly. Not when the No. 1 player in the world is forced to walk off the course with yet another in a series of injuries that have nagged him.
Guthrie said Woods never made “mention’’ of his back hurting during the round.
“Obviously, he wasn’t playing the greatest,’’ Guthrie said. “He was battling out there. It’s not like he was throwing in the towel; he was still trying.’’
This latest drama adds to what has been the worst start of Woods’ career, with his tie for 80th and missed third-round cut at Torrey Pines and his tie for 41st in Dubai.
This is not the first time Woods has been forced to withdraw from a tournament because of injury. It was his seventh career withdrawal, fourth in the last five years. He quit the 2012 WGC at Doral with an Achilles injury and the 2010 and 2011 Players Championship with a neck injury and then knee and Achilles ailments, respectively.
Ironically, at the last major championship Woods won, the 2008 U.S. Open, he did so while playing with knee damage and a stress fracture.
Last year, Woods suffered an elbow injury during the first round of the U.S. Open at Merion, causing him to miss the AT&T National.