Pain in the neck for Woods as his swing suffers

The Tiger Woods comeback story took another twist yester- day when he quit during a round for the first time in his professional career.

A stiff neck was given as the reason after Woods pulled out on the seventh hole of his final round at The Players Championship, golf's richest event, at Sawgrass in Florida.

He was two over par for the day, two under for the tournament and had fallen from 45th place to 51st when he told playing partner Jason Bohn he had had enough.

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Woods then revealed that he had been suffering since before he returned from his self-imposed absence following his sex scandal with a fourth place at The Masters last month.

"I've been playing with a bad neck for quite a while," he said before going for treatment and then leaving amid heavy security.

"They want me to go get a picture on it next week. I might have a bulging disc.

"I've been playing through it. I can't play through it any more. I'm having a hard time with the pain – there's tingling down my fingers.

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"Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion it's downhill from there."

He added that it was hurting him "backswing, downswing, follow-through".

Sweden's Fredrik Andersson Hed clung on to claim his first European Tour title at the 245th attempt in the Italian Open after almost letting slip a six-shot lead.

Andersson Hed took a commanding advantage into the final round in Turin after a brilliant nine-under-par 63 on Saturday, but found himself pegged back by England's David Horsey.

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Horsey moved into a share of the lead with his sixth birdie of the day on the 13th, but promptly dropped a shot at the next and bogeyed the 18th after a 10-minute wait on the tee.

That gave Andersson Hed some much-needed breathing room and he was able to par the last two holes to complete a round of 73 for a winning total of 16-under.

Horsey was second on 14-under with Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts, Sweden's Peter Gustafsson and England's Chris Wood sharing third.

Melissa Reid claimed her maiden European Tour title with a two-stroke victory at the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open yesterday. The 23-year-old from Derby signed for a 74 today to finish at three-under par ahead of Iben Tinning and Christel Boeljon who tied for second place.

"I think I've learned a lot from my mistakes and I felt ready this week to win," said Reid.

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