SINGAPORE, (Reuters) – Tiger Woods said fatigue was the reason he skipped this week’s World Golf Championship event in Shanghai.
As Australian Adam Scott and South African Louis Oosthuizen grabbed the first-round lead at the $7 million event in China yesterday, the 36-year-old Woods was holding a putting clinic for school children in Singapore.
The main sponsor had been unhappy Woods and world number one McIlroy chose to miss the Shanghai event despite being in the country and playing in a lucrative exhibition event.
Woods said he was looking forward to competing in the World Challenge in December, an invitational event he hosts in California, before putting his clubs away for a long rest.
“I was tired and doing these things are easy. Competing and getting ready for another golf tournament, I just didn’t want to do that,” Woods told reporters at Marina Bay after offering his expertise to 12 selected teenagers.
“I’ve got four more rounds at my tournament in LA and I’m done until Abu Dhabi next year so I’m looking forward to having this extended break. This is my off-season now and I’m really looking forward to getting away from it.
“Competing and playing golf tournaments after a long schedule, the playoffs, the Ryder Cup and a lot of other tournaments, it’s been a while,” he added of his need for a break after his first full season on Tour since 2005.
Woods, winner of 14 majors before his marriage imploded in late 2009, lost to McIlroy by a shot in the exhibition dubbed ‘The duel on the lake’. The American said he was happy with his year after returning from numerous injury problems.
