Who believes Tiger Woods withdrew from the Players Championship at Sawgrass because of a stiff neck? Or as he diagnosed it, possibly a “bulging disc”. (Careful there – Ed.)
Scepticism suggests the man who won the US Open on one leg two years ago had a problem alright, but it’s somewhere slightly more north of his shoulders.
With his personal life in meltdown, his game in relative tatters (even his swing coach Hank Haney has done an Elin), and All-American hero Phil Mickelson on the verge of adding the world number-one spot to his peerless popularity, Woods is finding the return to the golf course a little more difficult than he – and the rest of us – thought when he fast-tracked his “rehab” for the Masters.
Maybe it’s that Jack Nicklaus majors millstone around his neck that’s weighing on his mind. And the rest.
