Tiger Takes Another Week Off Turning Down Quail Hollow

Tiger Woods turns down Quail Hollow, perpares for Bethpage PGA.

 

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - MARCH 22: A detailed view of the 2019 PGA Bethpage Black logo during the 101st PGA Championship Ambassador Announcement at Mets Spring Training on March 22, 2019 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images)

 

Woods did not enter the Wells Fargo Championship next week at Quail Hollow, meaning he likely will go an entire month without playing until the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black on May 16-19.

"He's not ready to go next week," said Mark Steinberg, his agent at Excel Sports Management. "The Masters took a lot out of him. He's not hurt, but he is being smart."

 

 

Tiger Woods's manager Mark Steinberg talks to the media after the withdrawal of Woods during the second round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on February 3, 2017 in Dubai. / AFP PHOTO / KARIM SAHIB (Photo credit should read KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images)

 

This would be only the third time in his career that Woods did not play between majors. He went nine weeks between the Masters and U.S. Open in 2006 when his father died, and eight weeks between the Masters and U.S. Open in 2008 when his left leg was badly injured.

He went a month between the U.S. Open and British Open in 2013.

 

 

 

 

Woods won the Masters to end 11 years without winning a major, one of his proudest feats considering he had overcome four back surgeries and at times wondered if his career might be over.

In an interview Thursday with GOLFTV, Woods said he hasn't started preparing for his next event and that his fifth green jacket — his 15th major and 81st career PGA Tour victory — had not sunk in.

 

 

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 14: Tiger Woods of the United States celebrates with his caddie Joe LaCava after holing the winning putt on the par 4, 18th hole during the final round of the 2019 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

 

"I haven't started doing anything," he said. "I've just been laying there. And every now and again, I'll look over there on the couch and there's the jacket. Yeah, I did pull it off."

The only other tournament before the PGA Championship — which moved to May this year for the first time since 1949 — is the AT&T Byron Nelson, which is held on links-styled Trinity Forest in Dallas.

 

 

9 Aug 1997: Mike (Fluff) Cowen speaks with Tiger Woods on the 18th hole during the Buick Open at Warwick Hills Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Stockman /Allsport

 

The PGA Championship is the only major in which Woods competed the week prior, but that was when it was in August and he played either the Buick Open at Warwick Hills or the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, both tree-lined courses.

Players had until 5 p.m. Friday to commit to Wells Fargo if they were not at this week's PGA Tour event in New Orleans.

Woods won at Quail Hollow in 2007, though his results have been mixed since then. It is the only PGA Tour event where he has missed the 36-hole cut twice, in 2010 and in 2012. He returned last year and tied for 55th, 14 shots out of the lead.

 

 

UNITED STATES - MAY 06: Tiger Woods celebrates after winning the 2007 Wachovia Championship held at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 6, 2007. (Photo by Richard Schultz/Getty Images)

 

"He's not going to tee to not compete to win," Steinberg said. "He's not ready mentally or physically, but the physical side is not that he's hurt."

Woods said in the GOLFTV interview that he has started thinking about the PGA Championship — he won the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black — but that he has not started devoting hours to working on his game.

"I'm doing all the visual stuff," Woods said. "But I haven't put in the physical work yet. But it's probably coming this weekend."

 

 

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 14: Rickie Fowler of the United States plays his shot from the second tee during the final round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

 

The Wells Fargo Championship field includes defending champion Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, who won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

 

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