In the middle of his final round of play at the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Tiger Woods was tied for 45th place in the field.

While he was looking like a version of Tiger Woods that no one was used to seeing, the golfing icon withdrew from play in the seventh hole of today’s round.  Woods took his second shot – which was far right - grimaced, and then waled to shake hands with Jason Bohn, his playing partner.  Woods then left on a cart.

Woods says he has been playing through pain ever since he came back to compete in the Masters:

“I’ve been playing through it. I can’t play through it anymore.”

Woods said that there was a tingling sensation on his right side down to his fingers.  Tiger is planning to have an MRI next week.  He is concerned that he might have a bulging disk in his back.

Once again, the timing of Woods’ confession seems to be suspect.  In the midst of a final round in a tournament where he’s, quite frankly, stinking up the joint, he decides that he’s had enough.  Could he have finished out the Players?  IMO, probably.  But after not making the cut at Quail Hollow, this result certainly couldn’t have been unexpected.

Tiger seems unable to eat his humble pie.  Not only is he backing out of a poor performance in the Players Championships, but he also makes an excuse for his previous bad tournaments by saying that he was hurt long ago.

But now that we’ve come to know Woods in a different light, this turn of events is not surprising.

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