SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods’s latest comeback suffered another setback Thursday when he quit after 11 holes of his opening round at the Farmers Insurance Open, citing a stiff back.
Six days after saying his surgically repaired back was fine and that it was “not an issue anymore,” Woods hit his tee shot on his 12th hole — a par 3 — onto the green but did not hit the putt. In a scene that has become depressingly familiar, he shook his playing competitors’ hands before being whisked off to the parking lot in a cart.
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“I was ready to go,” Woods said. “I had a good warm-up session the first time around. Then we stood out here and I got cold, and everything started deactivating again.”
After Woods finished talking, he folded his body into a sporty tournament courtesy car. His next scheduled start is in three weeks, at the Honda Classic a short drive from his home in Florida. He said last week that his goal was to get in as many competitive rounds as he can before teeing off in the Masters in April. After his 82 last week and his withdrawal on Thursday, that goal seemed unattainable.
