Tiger Woods’ withdraws from The Farmers Insurance Open

World number 56 Tiger Woods’ has withdrawn from The Farmers Insurance Open after just 11 holes, with a recurring back problem.

Woods’ started the day with two bogeys in his opening four holes, a birdie at the 16th (his 7th hole) and finished on the 3rd green after a double bogey at the 2nd (his 11th hole). Woods’ looked in discomfort all day and playing partner Billy Horschel was picking Woods’ tee up after every tee shot to save the 14-time major champion from bending down to pick it up. A sorry sight.

Woods’ 3rd withdrawal in his last 8 events.

Despite clearly being in agony and flying his ball everywhere but down the middle, it was astonishing that he was level par after 10 holes. The only thing that Woods’ can take out of these few hours are that his putting was pretty tidy and saved him on about five occasions today.

Woods’played down his injury and said after his round, ” It’s just my glutes shutting off. They don’t activate, hence it goes into my lower back”

Where now for Woods’? Well he needs to go away and recover, if t’s just a case of needing to loosen the back up then we should be seeing him back pretty quickly. But with the way his game is at the moment it may be best for Woods’ to take a couple weeks off and work this new swing out, especially with Augusta just around the corner.

Farmers Insurance Open preview

A plethora of the world’s best gather at Torrey Pines tomorrow for the start of the PGA Farmers Insurance Open. All eyes will of course be on 50-1 shot and 14-time major champion Tiger Woods’, at a course where he has won on eight previous occasions.

The strong field includes Jordan Spieth, last week’s Waste Management Open winner Brooks Koepka, current FedExCup leader Jimmy Walker and the 2013 US Open Champion Justin Rose.

Despite the talent that will be on show, all eyes and cameras will be on new world number 56 Tiger Woods’ after his meltdown in Phoenix last week. Woods’ carded a 2^nd round 82, a career high as a professional and looked anything like someone who has won over 70 times on the PGA Tour. Woods’ tees off alongside fellow Americans Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel at 09:20am (17:20pm GMT) on the 10^th tee of the North Course.

Last year’s winner Scott Stallings will play the first two rounds with Brandt Snedeker and Ian Poulter and will start on the North Course at 10:40am (18:40pm GMT).

The most exciting grouping though tees off straight after Tiger Woods’ group, when Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama and Jordan Spieth take to the 10^th tee box at 09:30am (17:30 GMT). Spieth, who is the favourite to win this week, has already won twice this season and is in good form, especially on the greens. Brooks Koepka comes off the back of his first win as a professional and will take a lot of confidence into the tournament tomorrow. But my pick for this week is Hideki Matsuyama, I think this will be a good year for the young Japanese player, and I expect him to make some early progress on the North Course tomorrow morning.

In terms of who I think will struggle this week, I think Tiger Woods’ will make the cut but get nowhere near the top of the leaderboard. He needs four tournament rounds desperately and if he fails to make the cut, questions will certainly start to be asked about his contribution to the 2015 season.