Almost two weeks after Tiger Woods was forced to drop out of a tournament because of back spasms, he canceled a second news conference (in as many days) related to his foundation’s Genesis Open under the advice of his doctors.
Woods had moved the news conference at Riviera Country Club from Tuesday to Wednesday before calling it off altogether Tuesday night in what his agent, Mark Steinberg, said is a “precautionary” move after being “advised by doctors to limit all activities.”
Late last week, he withdrew from the tournament, which begins Thursday, and from the Honda Classic, which starts Feb. 23. At this point, there are beginning to be questions about whether he will have time to adequately to prepare for the Masters, which takes place the first weekend in April. Woods missed the cut three weeks ago at the Farmers Insurance Open three weeks ago and withdrew before the second round of the Dubai tournament on Feb. 3 because of back spasms.
“This is more precautionary,” Steinberg told ESPN early Wednesday morning, adding that Woods has seen doctors since flying to California from his Florida home over the weekend. “This isn’t about him not doing a press conference. What is going to be accomplished? What is he going to say? That he hopes his back spasms calm down?
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“This is about the Genesis Open, the Tiger Woods Foundation and supporting Hyundai [a tournament sponsor] and his foundation. He is doing all he can without having to get up and move around all that much, so that he can put himself in the best position to recover.”
Woods was unable to compete for more than 16 months after having two back surgeries in late 2015 and has been troubled by painful spasms. He played in the Hero World Challenge in December, leading the field in birdies. Nothing, though, has gone right since then.
“Tiger remains pretty confident in the fact that these spams are something he knows will calm down,” Steinberg said. “He’s just working around the clock to make that happen. He’s got an intense dedication to get back to the point where he can be out there practicing and in public and working toward his goal.”
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