The PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational saw two of its biggest draws, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth, fail to progress to the weekend’s play for two very different reasons.
Tiger Woods, who is the host of this week’s event, was making his first outing on the PGA Tour in 2024, but his comeback ended prematurely after he pulled out just six holes into his second round after coming down with a mystery bug.
The 48-year-old was two-over-par for the tournament at the time of his withdrawal, having opened with a one-over 73 for his first round at Riviera Country Club.
Although Woods didn’t speak directly to the media after he came off the course on Friday, one of his team, TGR Ventures vice president Rob McNamara, issued an update on his behalf.
“Tiger had a little bit of a fever and was better during the warm-up, but then when he got out there and was walking and playing, he started feeling dizzy,” McNamara told a PGA Tour official. “Ultimately, the doctors are saying he’s got potentially some type of flu and that he was dehydrated. He’s been treated with an IV bag and he’s doing much, much better, and he’ll be released on his own here soon.”
Woods started his second round with a birdie on the first hole, but back-to-back bogeys arrived from the fourth and he called it a day after a third par of the day on the sixth left him one over for his round.
Spieth DQ’d as Cantlay leads
Later in the day, the tournament lost another of its stars when Jordan Spieth was disqualified after signing for a wrong score on the par-3 fourth hole during his second round. He signed his card with 3, having actually made a bogey four. The error was spotted in the recorder’s hut shortly after the round was completed and resulted in Spieth’s instant disqualification.
The three-time major champion’s second round 73 would left him 10 strokes behind leader Patrick Cantlay who shot a six-under 65 to take his total to 13 under and build a five-shot lead going into a weekend. Luke List, Jason Day and Mackenzie Hughes who share second place on -8.
The Genesis Invitational started with a field of 68, but has a 36-hole cut to top 50 and ties, and anyone within 10 shots of the lead, which leaves 51 players to compete in the final two rounds.
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