Tiger Woods injured and ruled out of Open Championship

Former world number one Tiger Woods has confirmed he will miss this month's Open Championship at Sandwich because of his troublesome left leg injury.

The 35-year-old has not played competitively since suffering a recurrence of the injury at the Players Championship in mid-May.

"Unfortunately, I've been advised that I should not play in the British Open," Woods said on his official website.

Woods has 14 major titles, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.

Despite slipping to 17th in the current world rankings, Woods insisted: "I think my best years are still ahead of me and I'm very confident and optimistic about the future.

"I am only going to come back when I'm 100% ready. I do not want to risk further injury.

"In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have competed at the Players, but it's a big event and I wanted to be there to support the tour. I've got to learn from what I did there and do it right this time and not come back until I'm ready."