Tiger Woods ‘much better’ after 15-time major champion withdraws from tournament

Tiger Woods is feeling “much better” after cutting his comeback short and withdrawing from a California golf tournament.

The 48-year-old golfing icon was suffering flu-like symptoms and was forced to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational in the second round.

Woods’s long-time business partner Rob McNamara told PGATour.com that the 15-time world champion had “a little bit of a fever” after the first round on Thursday night, and “was better during the warm-up”.

But during Friday’s round, the executive vice president of TGR Ventures said that Woods “started feeling dizzy” before being driven back to the locker room by a rules official.

He then added: “Ultimately the doctors are saying he’s got some – potentially some type of flu and that he was dehydrated.

“He’s been treated with an IV bag and he’s doing much, much better and he’ll be released on his own here soon.”

The 15-time major champion and host of the Genesis was making his first tournament appearance of 2024.

It was also just Woods’s seventh appearance at an official PGA Tour event since The Masters in November 2020.

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Woods ended the first day of the tournament seven shots behind early leader Patrick Cantlay and revealed afterwards he had suffered a back spasm towards the end of the round.

But Mr McNamara said the reason behind Woods’s withdrawal was “not physical at all, his back’s fine”.

“It was all medical illness,” he added, “(it was) dehydration, which is now the symptoms are reversing themselves now that he’s had an IV.”

It marks the latest early withdrawal for the former champion, who last won a major competition in 2019.

In 2021, Woods said he won’t be able to play golf full-time “ever again” after a car crash in February the same year.

Woods suffered a broken ankle and a number of fractures in his right leg result of the incident. He returned to play in the 2022 Masters, finishing 47th.

Woods later underwent fusion surgery on his ankle in April 2023 after withdrawing from that year’s Masters in the third round, admitting to ESPN his leg was in “constant” pain.

The golfer then did not compete again until the Hero World Challenge in December, where he also suffered from a back spasm towards the end of his first round. He finished 18th out of 20 in that tournament.