The planned return of Tiger Woods will have to wait. Tim Rosaforte of The Golf Channel is reporting that Woods will not play in the Safeway Open, as had been planned.
Per @TimRosaforte, Tiger Woods is expected to withdraw from this week's Safeway Open: https://t.co/aPHkD5LlEM pic.twitter.com/Ys7CEoglJY
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) October 10, 2016
This is certainly a stunning development. Woods had long been committed to the tournament. On October 7, less than a week before the Safeway Open was to begin, Woods officially entered.
Will Gray of The Golf Channel offered more insight from Notah Begay III, who was a college teammate of Woods.
.@NotahBegay3 spoke to Tiger this morning via phone and Tiger "didn't feel like his game was where he wanted it to be to be competitive."
— Will Gray (@WillGrayGolfbet) October 10, 2016
Begay added that with this setback, we may not see Woods on the course for a while. Specifically, a commitment that had been made to a November tournament in Turkey is now in doubt.
We don’t want to overreact too much, but Woods has simply not played a lot of golf over the last few years. He’ll be 41 in December. If Woods is suffering a setback after such a long layoff, it doesn’t bode well for his health prospects if and when he ever returns to a normal schedule.
Play begins at the Safeway Open on Thursday, October 13. It is the opening tournament for the PGA Tour’s 2016-17 schedule.