Players Championship: Tiger Woods Leaves Tournament With Injury

A report from ESPN just minutes ago stated that Tiger Woods, currently the world's No.1-ranked golfer, withdrew from the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. with an apparent but undisclosed injury during Sunday's final round.

Woods teed off at hole No.7 before grimacing in pain and calling over an official. He managed to hit his second shot before leaving the course on a golf cart. He walked over to partner Jason Bohn before making his exit from the tournament.

Phil Mickelson, the world's No.2-ranked golfer, is scheduled to begin his final round at 1:45 p.m. EST. Mickelson has a chance to take over the No.1 spot in the world from Woods if he can win the tournament Sunday. He currently sits five strokes behind tournament leader Lee Westwood (-14) with a score of -9, tied for 11th place.

Clearly, the No.1 spot is Mickelson's to take. He has an incredibly tough task in front of him in order to achieve that, though, with ten other golfers currently ranked ahead of him on the leaderboard and a five-stroke deficit off the lead.

Woods' injury was not disclosed, but the fact that he left right in the middle of playing the seventh hole and could not walk off the course on his own power has to be disconcerting for him and the golf world in general.

Woods just recently made his return at the 2010 Masters, won by Mickelson, and the PGA certainly would not want another extended absence from Woods because of an injury. The most likely injury has to be an aggravation of his recently-repaired right knee.