“My neck feels pretty good, still not where I want it to be, but the inflammation has calmed down a bit,” he said on the eve of the Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village.

It will be his only competitive tune-up for the US Open at Pebble Beach in two weeks.

Woods’s decision to quit during the final round of the Players Championship was surprising because only a couple of days earlier he had said his physical health was fine.

Asked why he had not been more forthcoming earlier, he quipped: “You don’t need to know.”

Woods said his neck first started bothering him before the US Masters in April.

“The symptoms were such that it could have been anything,” he told reporters. “I had a hard time turning back (and) turning through and the headaches were just unreal at times.

“The MRI just showed a lot of inflammation in the joint (which) has since calmed down.

“It’s a little sore after a hard day of practice but I can recover for the next day, which is good. I’ve got range of motion. I’m good enough to play, definitely.”

If Woods was revealing, belatedly, about his neck injury, he was tight-lipped about his coaching situation.

Three weeks have passed since instructor Hank Haney severed ties with the 14-times major winner after a relationship of more than seven years.

Woods said he had “no plans” to replace Haney anytime soon and was currently assessing his swing by monitoring video.

With his neck still not fully healed and his personal life far from settled, it is doubtful Woods will be at his best at Pebble Beach, where he won the US Open by a record 15 strokes in 2000.

He noted that he has played only nine competitive rounds this year, hopefully 13 by the end of this week.

“It’s going to take a little time and hopefully that time will be short,” he said. “It’s great to hit it at home but I need to bring it out here.

“Ultimately, once you bring it out there you’ve got to bring it to a major championship. Once you do that, you’ve got to bring it to the major championship on the back nine.”
 
Nicklaus makes it hat trick of cups for Muirfield

Jack Nicklaus has left his bear tracks in golf for more than 50 years. He figures his last major involvement will be when the 2013 Presidents Cup is played on the course he built.

The PGA Tour announced Wednesday that the Presidents Cup will be played at Muirfield Village the next time it’s held on American soil, a tribute to the player that commissioner Tim Finchem said has played a big role in the growth of the matches.

The Associated Press first reported the development on Tuesday.

“When you fast forward 45 or 50 years and look back on the history of the Presidents Cup, you will be able to point to Jack’s involvement early on as a real impetus to bringing the world class attention that it gets today,” Finchem said.

Nicklaus was the US captain in 1998 when the cup first went overseas to Australia, the only time the Americans have lost. He was captain three straight times starting in 2003, when Nicklaus and longtime friend Gary Player famously agreed to end the matches in a draw when it became too dark to continue in South Africa.

He also was captain in 2005 and 2007, both US victories.

Nicklaus designed Muirfield Village, which opened in 1974, and it has hosted the Memorial since 1976. For such a young golf course, it will have hosted the Ryder Cup (1987), the Solheim Cup (1998) and now the Presidents Cup.

“It probably will be my last involvement in anything significant in the game of golf,” Nicklaus said.

Still to be determined is what role Nicklaus will play in 2013 beyond the golf course host. Asked if he would like to be captain, Nicklaus replied, “That hasn’t been decided, but I would suspect that I should not.”

“I don’t think it would be right for the team to have a captain that doesn’t relate to his players,” said Nicklaus, who will be 73 when the Presidents Cup comes to his home course.

Nicklaus said he would redesign the par-3 16th hole for the Presidents Cup, a change he had been considering for years but had put off because of the economy.

The Presidents Cup will be held in 2013 from Oct. 3-6, with the Saturday likely to run against Ohio State football. Nicklaus said he already has spoken to school officials—president Gordon Gee was in the room as he talked—and Ohio State would be willing to move to a night game if it was home that day.