Toms out of Zurich with injury

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 26, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:50 a.m.

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The Zurich Classic of New Orleans lost a crowd favorite Tuesday when former LSU All-American David Toms, the 2001 champion of the event, withdrew from the tournament with a back injury.

Toms tried to get in a practice round on Tuesday at TPC Louisiana, where the $6.2 million Zurich Classic will tee off Thursday morning, but couldn’t make it through the session.

“Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from the Zurich Classic today,” Toms said in a statement released by his foundation. “This tournament means so much to me and I hate that I will not be able to compete this year.

“I’m fighting a lower back injury that only gets slightly better each day,” he said. “It wouldn’t be fair to the great golf fans in New Orleans if I tried to tee it up and I wasn’t 100 percent healthy.”

Toms, 41, has been battling a lower back problem since the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship in late February when he defeated reigning Masters champion Zach Johnson.

Toms withdrew from that tournament before his second-round match with Aaron Baddeley on Feb. 21 and has played in only two events since then. He missed the cut in both, finishing 12-over par at the Honda Classic and 9-over at the PODS Championship during the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing.

Toms indicated he will not play in the Shell Houston Open next week and hopes to be ready to make his return in two weeks at the Masters Tournament — the first major of the 2008 season.

This is the first time Toms has not played in New Orleans since he became a regular member of the PGA Tour in 1996, taking part in the last 12 tournaments in the Crescent City.

“We’re very disappointed because David is a great player and a great friend of our tournament,” said Bill Reinhardt, chairman of the Board of Directors for the Fore!Kids Foundation. “We’re particularly concerned about the fact that he had to withdraw because of an injury.

“We hope he gets better soon and has a successful remainder of the year,” he said. “We look forward to David returning to our tournament next year.”

Toms, who also won the 2001 PGA Championship, was the second high-profile player to pull out of the tournament with back troubles in the last two days. Paul Azinger notified tournament officials on Monday that he was out.

Azinger was replaced in the 144-man field by Alejandro Canizares and Toms’ spot was taken by Martin Laird. Also withdrawing was Greg Kraft, who won the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday. He was replaced by veteran Jim McGovern.

Even without Toms and Azinger, who claimed the 1993 PGA Championship, the tournament has one of its strongest fields in years.