Woods Withdraws From Tournament

By LARRY DORMAN
Published: November 30, 2009
Tiger Woods announced his withdrawal from this week’s Chevron World Challenge, the tournament he has hosted since its move to the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., in 2000. In a statement on his Web site on Monday, Woods, 33, cited injuries from Friday’s one-car accident in front of his home near Orlando, Fla., as the cause for the withdrawal.
“I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week,” Woods said in the statement. “I am certain it will be an outstanding event and I’m very sorry that I can’t be there.”
Woods crashed his 2009 Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a neighbor’s tree early Friday as he was pulling out of his driveway in the gated community of Isleworth, an Orlando suburb where many high-profile athletes live. He sustained cuts to his upper and lower lips and was left unconscious for some time, according to an incident report. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was treated and released in good condition.
Woods, whose Tiger Woods Foundation is the main charitable beneficiary of the Chevron tournament — which he has won four times — did not play in last December’s event while recuperating from knee surgery. He did spend the week mingling with sponsors at Sherwood in his role as the host.
Woods’s Web site said he would play no other events this year. In the four years before missing this season’s Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines Golf Course, Woods started his United States schedule there, winning four straight at the La Jolla, Calif., municipal course. The 2010 event, named the Century Club of San Diego Invitational since the loss of Buick as a PGA Tour sponsor, will be played from Jan. 28 to Jan. 31.
“We support Tiger’s decision and are confident the strong field and excellent course will provide an exciting week of competition at the Chevron World Challenge,” said Greg McLaughlin, the president and chief executive of the Tiger Woods Foundation.