US TOUR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP:TIGER WOODS will undergo an MRI scan this week to determine the extent of the neck injury which forced him to withdraw after just seven holes of the final round of the Players Championship at Sawgrass yesterday.

So, having missed five months of the season up to the Masters following the disclosure of his serial adultery, the world’s number one is facing another lengthy absence from the sport.

Woods, who injured his neck in the incident last November when he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant outside the family home in Orlando in Florida, was two over par on his round when he withdrew after playing his approach shot to the seventh green.

“I’ve been playing with a bad neck for quite a while. I’ve been playing through it, (but) I can’t play through it any more,” Woods said.

Although Woods made an impressive return to tournament play by finishing fourth at last month’s US Masters, he has since missed the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship.

That was just the sixth missed cut of his career, and this aggravation of the neck injury places a serious doubt over his participation in next month’s US Open at Pebble Beach.

Woods first talked of the injury prior to the Masters, and he tweaked it again in warming up for yesterday’s final round at Sawgrass.

The 14-time major champion said his neck hurts on his “backswing, downswing and follow-through”, and that he had been advised to get an MRI scan to determine how serious it was.

“Setting up over the ball is fine, but once I start making the motion, it’s downhill from there,” explained Woods, who is due to play in the JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor in July.

This is the first time Woods has withdrawn from a tournament since the Los Angeles Open in 2006, when he withdrew from the final two rounds because of flu.

He also withdrew from the 1995 US Open at Shinnecock Hills as a 19-year-old amateur because of a wrist injury.

Woods approached his playing partner, Jason Bohn, on the seventh fairway to explain he was withdrawing due to injury.

“I thought it was his wrist because I saw him the hole before kind of hit a shot and jam his wrist,” Bohn said.

“But he said it was his neck, and he looked in a lot of pain. When I shook his hand and said, ‘Take care of yourself’, he kind of flinched a little. He definitely looked like he was in a lot of pain.”

Bohn, who won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans two weeks ago, knows what it’s like to fight injuries. He’s had three surgeries to repair problems associated with a fragmented disk in his back – including one that nicked his spinal cord.

“I completely understand from an injury standpoint,” Bohn said. “I was bedridden for 32 days. I couldn’t lift my head above my waist.”

South African Tim Clark, winless on the US Tour, moved into the final round lead with his fourth birdie in a row in a run from the ninth to the 12th – moving him to 16 under, one stroke ahead of England’s Lee Westwood.

The 34-year-old has still to win in 206 US Tour events.

There was disappointment for Graeme McDowell, the only Irish player to make the cut, as he finished with a final round 74 for 283, five under par.

McDowell failed to record a single birdie in his final round, suffering bogeys on the ninth and the 18th, but he still managed a top-30 finish in the tournament.

The Ulsterman is due to resume tournament play at the BMW PGA in Wentworth in a fortnight, where he will be seeking to remain in the world’s top-50 to ensure a place in the field for the US Open.