It is tempting to say it’s time for Tiger Woods to step away gracefully from major-championship golf, and some have said so.
When Woods left Royal Troon and the Open Championship on Friday afternoon, having missed his third straight major-championship cut this year, he left with a sense of wistfulness in the Scottish air.
We’ve seen his best, and we are never going to see the likes of it again, but that doesn’t mean Woods should call it a career. He should stay and play as long as he wants, which it sounds as if he plans to do.
Asked Friday whether he intends to play the Open Championship at Royal Portrush next year, Woods, who as a former champion is exempt until age 60, said, “Definitely.”
Woods knows better than anyone what time and injury have done to his body, and it’s reasonable to wonder whether he might be tilting at his own windmills as he chases what he once had. But why quit if he still believes there’s something better down the line?
That’s the essence of golf: believing in what’s next. It’s what gets most of us to the first tee.
“I've gotten better, even though my results really haven't shown it, but physically I've gotten better, which is great,” Woods said after rounds of 79-77 that left him eight strokes off the cut line and near the bottom of the Open scoreboard.
“I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again.”
That sounds familiar, because it is.
Woods said he won’t play tournament golf again until December when he hosts the Hero World Challenge, a PGA Tour exhibition benefiting his foundation, and joins his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship, which he called “our fifth major.”
On the positive side, Woods met his goal of playing in all four majors this year, but he made the cut in only one. It’s worth remembering that was his 24th consecutive made cut at the Masters, a tournament record.
“Obviously it tests you mentally, physically, emotionally, and I just wasn't as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping that I would find it somehow; just never did. Consequently, my results and scores were pretty high.”
Tiger Woods
The sobering reality is that Woods has not broken par in an official event since the third round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in 2023. It’s an admittedly small sample size – 11 rounds this year and 14 in a row – but it’s a game of numbers.
“I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” said the oft-injured Woods, who is still feeling the surgical effects from a mangled right leg suffered in a single-vehicle rollover crash in early 2021. “Obviously it tests you mentally, physically, emotionally, and I just wasn't as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping that I would find it somehow; just never did. Consequently, my results and scores were pretty high.”
When Colin Montgomerie spouted off before the Open Championship, suggesting Woods should retire from tournament golf because it’s dulling his legacy, he was saying what many believe. It doesn’t, however, mean Monty was right.
Nothing can dull what Woods has accomplished.
Woods will know when he can’t physically do it any longer, and his record this year probably reinforced that sentiment. To hear his side of it, Woods believes he’s making progress physically and that ultimately will lead to better golf. He won’t surrender until he has given himself every chance to be at his best.
It’s reasonable to assume his ceiling has been lowered, like an aging singer who can’t hit the high notes as he or she once did. Whatever that ceiling is, Woods wants to touch it, maybe even break through it again.
He has always had a bullish self-belief to go with otherworldly talent, but it’s fair to believe both of those attributes have been built over time. It brings to mind the adage that the golf ball doesn’t know who is hitting it.
That’s the beauty of the game. Those 82 PGA Tour trophies, including 15 major championships, don’t make finding the fairway in a crosswind or fading a 6-iron into a tucked pin any easier.
It’s a young man’s game, perhaps now more than ever, but it’s not exclusively that reality. Woods, who will turn 49 in December, is more than twice the age of many of the players whom he is trying to beat, and many of them have to rely on YouTube to see and appreciate what the rest of us saw with our own eyes.
Woods is in a different part of his life. To the surprise of many, including himself, he has taken an active role in shaping the future of the PGA Tour through his seat on the tour’s Policy Board and in the creation of the TGL, which will debut early next year. It’s not just about him any longer.
“Yes, there are days I wish I had a sand wedge and I had a driver out and I was out hitting golf balls instead of sitting in the three-hour subcommittee meeting,” Woods said.
In the same way, Woods went to Scotland intending to play through the weekend. Instead, he was finished by lunchtime Friday and was making plans to head back across the Atlantic where he will be a golf dad again, watching 15-year-old Charlie compete in the U.S. Junior this week at Oakland Hills in Michigan.
These are precious father-son days, and he has embraced being a dad to his two children. The days pass quickly.
Maybe that’s why seeing Woods struggle through the majors this year feels the way it has. The yesterdays are still fresh in our minds.
Woods, however, has earned as many tomorrows as he wants.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Tiger Woods is not yet ready to wave goodbye.
PEDRO SALADO, GETTY IMAGES
