Woods once again leaves with more questions than answers

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For a second straight year Tiger Woods withdrew from THE PLAYERS with an injury.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- A decade ago, Tiger Woods won his first and only PLAYERS Championship in the midst of the greatest run of golf the game has ever seen.

Thursday, he left TPC Sawgrass for a second straight year under a cloud of questions with no answers in sight.

React to Tiger's WD

Have a thought about Tiger's latest injury concerns? Click here WOODS WDs: For a second straight year, Tiger Woods withdrew from THE PLAYERS Championship with an injury. Click here HEALTH ISSUES: Check out this timeline of Tiger's knee problems. Click here PHOTO GALLERY: Here are photos from Tiger's abbreviated first round Thursday at THE PLAYERS. Click here FOLEY ON TIGER: Given Tiger's recent injury history, his swing coach wasn't terribly surprised by Thursday's news. Click here KAYMER, KUCHAR HOLD OWN: Despite the hubbub around Tiger's WD, Martin Kaymer and Matt Kuchar played well in the opening round. Click here

Last time it was a neck injury during the final round. This time he lasted just nine holes before pulling out with knee and Achilles injuries.

The decision was almost as stunning as his score at the time -- a 6-over 42 that included three bogeys and a triple-bogey on the fourth hole, where he twice found the water.

But maybe we should have seen this coming.

It was just last month that Woods, whose left knee has been surgically repaired four times in his career, suffered a Grade 1 mild medial collateral ligament sprain and a mild strain to his Achilles tendon.

He went 28 days without touching a club and just last week was in a walking boot. It wasn't until Monday that Woods even hit balls, which he did on the driving range at Isleworth.

Woods played nine holes at TPC Sawgrass each of the next two days, but by Wednesday he was battling soreness and, according to his swing coach Sean Foley, was having trouble walking.

Plus, as Mark O'Meara noted, Woods picked up the tab when the two had dinner Wednesday night at Ruth's Chris Steak House. "It's not that often he goes to the hip," O'Meara joked.

Clearly something was amiss, though, and Woods may have been more injured than he was letting on.

When O'Meara saw Foley on the driving range this week, he asked the swing coach how Woods' leg was. According to O'Meara, Foley said, "You know, his leg is not good. I mean, he can hit balls, but he's having a hard time walking."

That was evident from the start Thursday.

Woods hit his opening tee shot into the left rough and almost immediately seemed uncomfortable.

By the time Woods got to the fourth hole, where he again pulled his tee shot into the left rough and then proceeded to dump his next two shots into the water short of the green, his limp was pronounced and the pain obvious.

"Tiger, even as well as I know him, sometimes it's very difficult to read him," O'Meara continued. "I asked him the other day, I said, 'How's the leg,' and he says, 'It's fine.'

"I don't know if it's fine or if he's just telling me it's fine and it's really not that fine."

On the par-5 ninth, Woods hit one of his better drives of the day but seemed to lack some of the usual speed in his swing. He made bogey there, too, flubbing a chip into a greenside bunker before pitching out well past the hole and two-putting.

As Woods walked off the green, he went over to playing partners Martin Kaymer and Matt Kuchar and wished them luck. Then he told officials he was done.

Asked afterward just how bad the pain was, Woods said, "I'm having a hard time walking," before making the walk to the TOUR's fitness trailer in a scene eerily reminiscent to last year.

Counting his amateur days, Woods has won twice at TPC Sawgrass. But he's yet to finish four rounds here in his last two visits, and he's had just one top-10 here since that lone victory.

But figuring out TPC Sawgrass is no longer his primary concern this week. Now he needs to figure out his health issues.

"I don't know," Woods said of his future status.

Of course there was a time when there were no such uncertainties from Woods, like from 1999-2009 when he won 35 percent of his starts. That was also the last time he won on TOUR, capturing the 2009 BMW Championship.

"He's a great athlete, he's incredibly physically gifted, and he's been battling some injuries and certainly the personal problems that he's had in his life the last year and a half," O'Meara added. "All those things combined have made it difficult for him to get probably on the golf course where he wants to be.

"If the limitations that Tiger is facing with his injuries are holding him back, then he needs to get those totally fixed. He definitely needs to have more reps because you can stand on the range at home at Isleworth, or you can come and hit balls, or play practice rounds or whatever, but until you get out there in the thick of the battle, it's very difficult to trust anything."

So what now for Tiger?

Like he said, we don't know.