US Open champion Justin Rose has been forced out of this week’s Honda Classic on the PGA Tour suffering from tendinitis in his right shoulder.
Rose suffered the injury in August when he threw his golf ball to his caddie during a tournament. The injury forced him out of the Abu Dhabi HSBC cham- pionship in January and the Farmers Insurance at Torrey Pines.
The Englishman played two weeks ago in the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles, where he tied for 45th, and last week in the WGC-Accenture match play championship in Arizona, where he lost in the second round.
Despite pulling out of tomorrow’s Florida event, the world number six is expected to be fit to play in the WGC Cadillac cham- pionship at Doral next week.
Rose’s withdrawal from the tournament still leaves six of the world’s top 10 in the field at PGA National in Florida – and all eyes will be on Tiger Woods following his sluggish start to the season.
World number one Woods has managed just 11 rounds of competitive golf as he begins a three-tournament Florida swing which he will use as his preparation for the Masters at Augusta National.
With just one solitary FedEx Cup point amassed so far, it is clear the majors are the only events which matter to Woods.
He said: “Once the Florida swing starts, we’re all just building towards that one week in April at Augusta. Don’t finish dead last, but if you win, great.”
Has the Woods mystique declined?
Australia’s US Masters winner Adam Scott claims players are “not worried about Tiger Woods” while rookie of the year Jordan Spieth added: “He’s easy to play with, he talks to us.”
It sounds anything like the fiercely determined individual who dominated for more than a decade as he pursued Jack Nicklaus’s majors record.
Television analyst Johnny Miller believes Woods no longer cuts an invincible figure.
He said: “The players really believe he is terrific but can be beaten.
“Before it was if he had his A-game, you could just forget winning the tournament, it wasn’t going to happen.
“He was just so much better than everyone.
“He was better under pressure, better on Sundays and so much better in the majors it was not fair. Now it is.”