by Jeff Hall and Jeremy Harness

Tiger Woods who is not at the AT&T Tournament and begged off at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines has announced on Wednesday that he will put the golf clubs in the closet while he rehabs his bad back. Woods had complained about back spasms during the Phoenix Open and had to leave that tournament. Tiger 39 has not said anything about retirement but listening to most radio talk shows the suggestion was not on short order.

Woods has said that his performance is not up to PGA standards and has said that he would not return to the game until his game is up to par. Woods during the Phoenix Open shot a career worst 82 shots and missed the cut by 12. Woods then moved onto LaJolla and shot 11 holes but back spasms forced him to leave that tour.

As of this week Woods said that his back is feeling better and that he was having physical therapy everyday and the treatments were helping.”Right now I need a lot of work on my game, and to spend time with the people that are important to me. My play, and scores are not acceptable for tournament golf. Like I’ve said, I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I think I’m ready I’ll be back.”

Tiger said that he could be back as soon as the Honda Classic on Feb 26th but said that he will not play in the tournament if he’s not up to code. Woods who had back surgery last spring said that his current condition is not related to the surgery and that these are a new set of back problems that he was dealing with at the Farmers Insurance Open.

When Woods left Torrey Pines he had treatment done to his back almost immediately on Feb 5, that day it was foggy and somewhat cool and that might have led up to his back having spasms. Woods agent Mark Steinberg told ESPN that therapy helped tremendously and gave Tiger a chance to see light at the other end of the tunnel in coming back this month, “it alleviated the discomfort quite a bit. They said it’s not surgery related and that was a great relief. I don’t know what you call it but their saying it wasn’t related to the surgery and he didn’t even need to see a doctor.”

Jeff Hall and Jeremy Harness are covering the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am this week at Pebble Beach Calif for http://www.sportsradioservice.com