• Out of Bounds

Tiger needs to show some fighting spirit

Tiger Woods has looked a little hot under the collar in recent weeks © Getty Images

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Fourteen-time major champion, 71-time PGA tour victor and Ryder Cup winner - Tiger Woods can now add quitter to his CV.

Woods walked off the course seven holes into his final round at the Players Championship - citing a neck injury too severe to allow him to carry on for the rest of his round.

"I've been playing with a bad neck for about a month," Woods said after informing his bewildered playing partner Jason Bohn that the pain was too much to bear. "I've been playing through it. I can't play through it any more. I'm having a hard time with the pain - there's tingling down my fingers."

But hold on. Rewind to earlier in the Players Championship and Woods, responding to questions about his physical well-being, said: "Absolutely 100%." Something doesn't quite ring true.

Woods has had a lot to endure in the past six months, but much of it is of his own doing after his private life became public knowledge with talk of numerous affairs. He retreated into his shell before emerging at the Masters and finishing a creditable fourth - suggesting that, on the course at least, he would soon pick up where he left off.

Woods infamously crashed his car in November © Getty Images

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But that suggestion was blown out of the water as Woods blew out spectacularly at the Quail Hollow Championship - missing the cut for only the sixth time in his career with a miserable 79 on the Friday.

There were plenty prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt but he was well off the pace when he decided to walk off the course mid-way through the final round at the Players.

"For me not to play all 18 holes, that was as angry and as frustrated as I've been in a long time," Woods said.

From past experiences we know Woods does angry, but we have also seen him play through pain. He won the 2008 US Open effectively playing on one leg on account of a knee injury that required reconstructive surgery shortly after his play-off win over Rocco Mediate.

Far from Out of Bounds to be accused of cynicism, but would Woods have walked off the course on Sunday with his neck injury had he been battling with tournament winner Tim Clarke for the lead?

There is no questioning Woods' talent, he has taken the game to a new level, but the aura of invincibility seems to have disappeared and that may be harder to recover from than a neck injury.

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