Tiger's comeback falls flat again

The 41-year-old, who has won four Masters, three US Opens, four USPGA Championships and three Open Championships during his career, posted a disappointing opening-round 77 in Dubai on Thursday.

That had left him 12 shots behind the overnight leader Sergio Garcia on five-over.

Woods only returned to action in December 2016 after 15 months out following two back operations and last month he missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

'He felt okay coming off the golf course yesterday so he wasn't in pain,' said Woods' agent Mark Steinberg on Friday morning.

'I didn't see him at dinner but he said he was okay and went into a spasm in his lower back, fairly late last night after dinner.

'He tried to work it out last night, didn't really get it worked out. He had treatment starting pretty early this morning for probably the past three, three-and-a-half hours.

'He says it's not the nerve pain that's kept him out for so long. He says it's a back spasm and he just can't get the spasm to calm down. So that's where we are.'

Garcia is available at 15/8 to win the Omega Dubai Desert Classic outright while George Coetzee can be backed at 5/1 and Ian Poulter at 40/1.

All prices courtesy of bet365.