Professional golfer Rory McIlroy has withdrawn from the Arnold Palmer Invitational after he felt muscle spasms in his back.
“While warming up in the gym this morning, I felt a small twinge in my back,” McIlroy said in a Saturday, March 7, statement. “As I started hitting balls on the range before the round, it worsened and developed into muscle spasms in my lower back.”
He added, “Unfortunately, I’m not able to continue and have to withdraw. I was excited to compete this weekend. I wish the Arnold Palmer Invitational a great finish and look forward to being back next year.”
McIlroy, 36, was sitting in the top 10 of the leaderboard of the tournament in Orlando, Florida, shooting 4-under-68 through the second round on Friday, March 6. He withdrew about 30 minutes before he was set to tee off on Saturday.
The reigning champion of the Masters told Golf Channel that he likely could have played through the spasms, but did not want to risk further injury with The Players tournament coming up next week, and a chance to defend his title at the Masters starting April 9.
This is only the third time the career Grand Slam winner has withdrawn from a tournament throughout his long career, most recently the 2013 Honda Classic, where he had to drop out in the second round.
He also left the Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2009 with the flu and food poisoning.
Last September, McIlroy led Team Europe to a Ryder Cup championship over the United States, where he — and his wife, Erica Stoll — had to deal with unruly fans throughout the tournament.
Stoll infamously had a drink thrown at her by a fan.
“It should be off-limits, but obviously it wasn’t this week,” McIlroy said at the time. “Erica is fine. She’s a very, very strong woman. She handled everything this week with class, poise and dignity like she always has. I love her and we’re going to have a good time celebrating tonight.”
McIlroy himself had to deal with the fans’ abuse through the weekend, eventually succumbing to an outburst, yelling “Shut the f*** up!” at a fan.
“It was a rough week for all of us,” he said after Team Europe’s win. “But at the same time, we shut them up by our performance and how we played. I chirped back a few times because it got to me, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that.”
