Miami (AFP)

Tiger Woods, winner of the Masters last year, will ignore the World Golf Championship (WGC) in Memphis to better prepare for the USPGA, first Major of the year, scheduled for the following week in San Francisco.

Fifteen times victorious in the Grand Slam, Woods, 44, announced Friday his withdrawal from the WGC. He just finished 40th at the Memorial Tournament last week for his first PGA Tour tournament since February.

“I'm disappointed to miss WGC FedEx, but I'm doing what I think is best to prepare for the PGA Championship and then the FedEx Cup finals,” the US champion tweeted. At Memorial, he again suffered from his back, which had already been operated on several times, and narrowly crossed the cut on Friday.

Still ranked 14th in the world this week, Tiger equaled Sam Snead's legendary record last October in Japan: 82 wins on the American circuit. As for the Masters 2019 in Augusta, it was his first Major since 2008.

After the Memorial, with the WGC St. Jude Invitational next week in Memphis, then the USPGA at TPC Harding Park, it would have been three big tournaments in four weeks for a now fragile Woods back and knee who also had surgery. .

After the USPGA, postponed from May to August, two other Majors are scheduled to end this 2020 season truncated by the coronavirus and deprived of the British Open: the US Open in September, then the Masters in November.

© 2020 AFP