The Timed

Dressed in his Sunday red shirt, Tiger Woods bowed his head and sat in silence in front of his locker. He was supposed to be on the ninth hole at The Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Woods withdrew from the tournament coz of a neck injury. He was so frustrated that he slammed his golf shoe to the floor while taking questions from the reporters.

“I’ve been playing through it,” Woods said of pain he first felt before the Masters. “I can’t play through it anymore.”

Woods said he did not know what caused the injury, only that “playing doesn’t help it.” He said pain was bothering him from the time he took the club back until he finished his swing.

After hitting his tee shot well right, Woods called for an official. He hit his second shot and grimaced, then walked to the middle of the fairway, shook hands with playing partner Jason Bohn (FSY) and left in a golf cart.

He said he plans to have an MRI next week. He said he was having a hard time with the pain, and that there was a tingling sensation on his right side down to his fingers. As he was driven from the golf course, Woods continually squeezed his right hand and released his fingers. “I might have a bulging disk,” he said.

This is the third time he has withdrawn from a tournament, the first in the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills because of a wrist injury and the second time from the Nissan Open at Riviera in 2006 coz of flu. It was only his third tournament back from a five-month hiatus after he was caught having extramarital affairs.

Whether Woods keeps his No. 1 ranking now depends on Phil Mickelson (FSY), who teed off Sunday afternoon.