Tiger Woods gave a ludicrous explanation for why he had to quit a tournament, and it's sad to read

Tiger Woods is reaching right now. Reaching for solutions to his short-game issues. Reaching for ways to stay healthy. Reaching for rational explanations that frame his broken swing and dodgy back as simple, solvable problems that are, when you think about it, not that bad.

For the third time in the last 12 months, Tiger withdrew because of injury at a tournament on Thursday. His back - the same back that underwent major surgery last March - tightened up, and he limped off the course after 11 holes.

In the parking lot after his round, he gave a convoluted explanation for what happened. He said his glutes "deactivated" during the fog delay that push back his tee time two hours.

"It's just my glutes are shutting off," he said. "Then they don't activate and then, hence, it goes into my lower back. So, I tried to activate my glutes as best I could, in between, but it just they never stayed activated."

This deactivated glutes theory is now the talk of the golf world, and he's being openly mocked for it.

Here's the full transcript of his interview (via ASAP Sports):

Q. When did the back start acting up?

TIGER WOODS: I guess between those two suspension. When we had that break. It just never loosened back up again. And when we went back out, it just got progressively tighter.

Q. Did you consider not playing?

TIGER WOODS: What's that?

Q. Did you consider not playing?

TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. How frustrating is this for you, considering everything that you've been through with your back?

TIGER WOODS: It's frustrating that it started shutting down like that. I was ready to go. I had a good warm-up session the first time around. Then we stood out here and I got cold, and everything started deactivating again. And it's frustrating that I just can't stay activated. That's just kind of the way it is.

Q. Is this new for you since your comeback?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, very. This is -- usually don't have to wait like this. When I'm at home practicing I keep going, keep going, this is different.

Q. Same pain or a different pain?

TIGER WOODS: It's just my glutes are shutting off. Then they don't activate and then, hence, it goes into my lower back. So, I tried to activate my glutes as best I could, in between, but it just they never stayed activated.

Q. When did you first feel it?

TIGER WOODS: Whenever we were standing there on the putting green to see if we were going to go play or not. And I tried to activate it before we went back out, but it just never did.

This is a silly explanation, sure, but I'd argue that it's not just semantics.

Right now Tiger Woods has some of the most serious issues a golfer can have. He has a bad back that can apparently flare up at any time, knocking him out of a tournament for no rhyme or reason. According to Brian Wacker of PGATour.com, his back also tightened up a few months ago when he was playing a recreational round with another pro and stopped to each lunch after nine holes.

This is real. If his back can't hold up to a fog delay or a lunch break, how is he supposed to compete professionally on any consistent basis?

But if you read between the lines on Tiger's glutes explanation, you can see that he's fighting against the conclusion that something is seriously wrong. It's not that he has a bad back that can turn on him at any moment, it's that these specific muscles didn't activate properly in this specific instance in this specific way as a result of this unusual circumstance. He's convoluting himself, reaching for a way to rationalize withdrawing because of a back issue without acknowledging that this back issue is an inherent problem that's not going away.

It's hard to watch Tiger struggle with his swing and his health, and harder still to see him pull out explanations like this, because it means that there is no other optimistic explanation.

Even the golf media, which is pulling for Tiger along with everyone else who cares about golf, is baffled by the whole activated glutes thing:

This is where we are in the trajectory of Tiger's career.