Woods Open Participation in Doubt

Tiger Woods is out of another tournament through injury – and whether he makes The Open his first event for over two months now remains to be seen.

Bothered by knee and Achilles problems since The Masters in April, the former world number one last week missed his first US Open since making his debut in 1995.

Now he has been advised to continue his lay-off rather than play next week's AT&T National in Pennsylvania.

His last appearance was the Players Championship on May 12, when he limped through nine holes in 42 shots before quitting.

The Open championship at Sandwich starts on July 14 and Woods will be expected to play only if he is given the all-clear by his medical team.

On his Twitter site on Wednesday, the 35-year-old, who has not won a tournament for 19 months and a major for three years, said: “Doctor's orders: sitting out the £attnational.

“I'll be in Philly to support the event. Feeling stronger every day, but not 100%.”

He is suffering from a Grade I mild medial collateral ligament sprain to his left knee and a mild strain to his left Achilles tendon.

The injuries occurred while he was hitting an awkward shot from underneath a tree at Augusta during the third round of the Masters.

After his early exit at Sawgrass Woods was photographed on crutches with the lower part of his ailing left leg in a boot.

According to his swing coach Sean Foley the two have not worked together since the week of The Players.

Many expected Woods to have taken Jack Nicklaus' 18-major record by now, but he missed the 2008 Open and US PGA following reconstructive knee surgery and has been unable to add to his 14 since then.

He has had four operations on his knee in total during his career and, of course, has had to deal with the break-up of his marriage after revelations about serial adultery.

A last-round charge at The Masters brought him into the lead, but he faltered on the back nine and finished fourth for the second year running.

That is the same position he occupied on his last visit to Sandwich, although his week was mostly remembered for losing a ball with his opening drive and taking a triple bogey seven.

In the last two Opens he missed the cut at Turnberry and then managed only 23rd place at St Andrews last July.

Another South Korean, Amy Yang, was a shot behind the leading pair in third while Dover-born Karen Stupples' level-par round of 72 left her a further shot back in a tie for fourth with a round to play. She was joined at five under overall by Sweden's Maria Hjorth and Norwegian Suzann Pettersen.