Tiger Woods says neck injury has nothing to do with November car crash

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Tiger Woods better get used to this.

He better get used to explaining that every time he gets injured -- or has a crick in his neck or cuts himself shaving, etc. -- it has nothing to do with his Nov. 27 car accident.

In a news conference Monday in Newtown Square, Pa., a day after withdrawing from The Players Championship due to neck pain, Woods made perfectly clear there is ‘zero connection’ between that injury and the late-night car crash that resulted in a sore neck and a cut lip.

Woods said his neck started bothering him two weeks before the Masters in April but thought it was ‘no big deal.’

Of course, people are going to make their own assumptions ... at least until Woods, who missed the cut at Quail Hollow last weekend, starts playing better.

But it might be awhile before he even plays again. Woods said his schedule is up in the air and could be based on what is learned after he has an MRI.

‘I’m at a point now where I just can’t go anymore,’ said Woods, who is scheduled to play in the U.S. Open on June 17-20.

‘I want to practice, I want to play, I want to compete, but this is not allowing me to do the things that I need to do on my golf swing to hit the proper shots. I need to get to where I can do that again.’

-- Chuck Schilken

The Associated Press contributed to this report.