Tiger Woods Withdraws from the Players Championship

Special from The Players Championship – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Tiger Woods has withdrawn from The Players after nine holes of play. According to Woods, his knee bothered him from the first tee shot and got progressively worse.

Woods bogeyed the first, and had a triple at the fourth, a bogey at the fifth, and a double at the ninth, eventually posting a front-nine 42 before withdrawing.

"The knee acted up and the Achilles followed after that and then the calf started cramping up," Woods said after leaving the course.

He was in the pine straw left of the first hole with his second shot.

"The pine shot didn't help because my foot slipped, my left foot slipped," he explained. "It obviously would have felt better if it would have held."

He said he was having a hard time walking after he completed the first nine holes.

Woods admitted to being concerned. "It's just a matter of what we're going to do about it," he said.

The tee shot on No. 4, Woods said, "grabbed me."

But he owned up to bad shots the rest of the hole.

"Those were just bad pitch shots. Those were awful," he said about putting two balls in the water.

Woods seemed somewhat surprised and had to be disappointed.

"They said I would play," he summarized. "The more rest I get, the better it would be."

This is the second time Woods has withdrawn from The Players with injury. He withdrew in 2010 with a pinched neck. That was on the sixth hole.