Recuperating Snedeker withdraws from Tiger's event

Reuters
Brandt Snedeker of the U.S. hits from a sand trap on the second hole during third round play in the 2013 Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, April 13, 2013. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

(Reuters) - American world number nine Brandt Snedeker has pulled out of next month's Northwestern Mutual World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California as he continues to recover from a leg injury. Though Snedeker is "ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation program," the 32-year-old did not want to push his return to competition with a busy early 2014 campaign fast approaching, the golfer's management company said on Monday. Snedeker, a six-times winner on the PGA Tour, plans to defend his title at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am which will be held in California from February 6-9. In recent years, he has made a habit of playing in at least five events on the PGA Tour's West Coast Swing during January and February. Snedeker bruised his left tibia and strained the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee when he fell off a Segway during a corporate outing in China earlier this month, after the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Those injuries initially forced him to withdraw from the November 7-10 Australian PGA Championship, and then the December 5-8 Northwestern Mutual World Challenge which is hosted by world number one Tiger Woods. No replacement has yet been announced for Snedeker in the 18-man field at Sherwood Country Club where Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell will defend the title he won by three shots last year. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)