{"id":68401,"date":"2026-03-07T15:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T20:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/rory-mcilroy-to-defend-players-title-despite-withdrawal-from-invitational\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T20:35:52","slug":"rory-mcilroy-to-defend-players-title-despite-withdrawal-from-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/rory-mcilroy-to-defend-players-title-despite-withdrawal-from-invitational\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy to defend Players title despite withdrawal from Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Northern Irishman pulled out before third round<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>\u2018I felt a twinge in my back, it became muscle spasms\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rory McIlroy is confident of defending his Players Championship title from Thursday despite withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer Invitational 35 minutes before his third round. McIlroy suffered back spasms, with the Northern Irishman unwilling to potentially put appearances at the Players and next month\u2019s Masters at risk by taking to the course at Bay Hill. McIlroy will also be defending the crown at Augusta National.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile warming up in the gym this morning, I felt a small twinge in my back,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAs I started hitting balls on the range before the round, it worsened and developed into muscle spasms in my lower back. Unfortunately, I\u2019m not able to continue and have to withdraw. I was excited to compete this weekend. I wish the Arnold Palmer Invitational a great finish and look forward to being back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/mar\/07\/rory-mcilroy-to-defend-players-title-despite-withdrawal-from-invitational\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Irishman pulled out before third round \u2018I felt a twinge in my back, it became muscle spasms\u2019 Rory McIlroy is confident of defending his Players Championship title from Thursday despite withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer Invitational 35 minutes before his third round. McIlroy suffered back spasms, with the Northern Irishman unwilling to potentially put &#8230; <a title=\"Rory McIlroy to defend Players title despite withdrawal from Invitational\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/rory-mcilroy-to-defend-players-title-despite-withdrawal-from-invitational\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Rory McIlroy to defend Players title despite withdrawal from Invitational\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}