TROON, Scotland (AP) — Tiger Woods is playing all four majors for the first time since 2019, which at the start of the year would have been cause for great optimism.
The results paint a different picture.
He set a Masters record by making his 24th consecutive cut at Augusta National. And then he was gone by the weekend at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. He hasn’t broken par since a 69 in the second round of the 2022 PGA Championship, and he needed that simply to make the cut.
His performance is starting to raise questions of how much longer he will play — how much longer he should play — to avoid lasting memories of a great champion slapping it around.
Leave it to Colin Montgomerie to put those thoughts into words found in a Times of London interview ahead of the British Open, when he said at one point, “What the hell is he doing?”
The entirety of what Montgomerie told the Times: “I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him. There is none of that now. At Pinehurst he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there, either.”
Woods already has enjoyed one aspect of his stay at Royal Troon. That came Tuesday when he was asked about Montgomerie’s comments. Woods relishes a chance to push back on criticism, particularly when the source is someone known for never winning a major.
“Well, as a past champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60,” Woods said, speaking to his time at the British Open. “Colin’s not. He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.”
It brought up memories of an Open tradition some 20 years ago. Stewart McDougal was the press officer at the time, and he would ask Open champions who came into the press center to sign the table. At the end of the week, McDougal auctioned off the table for charity.
Montgomerie came in one day, saw all the signatures on the table and reached for pen.
“I’m sorry, Colin,” McDougal told him. “It’s only for Open champions.”
Poor Monty.
The questions are fair enough, but there is something to be said about golfers being able to decide when their time is done. And given all that Woods has done in the game, it’s probably not the best idea to show him the door no matter what numbers he is posting.
His 82 in the third round of the Masters was his highest in a major. The 78 on the Old Course two years ago in what likely will be his final time at St. Andrews.
He still draws the biggest crowd and generates the loudest buzz. And two numbers worth remembering are four and 15. He had four surgeries on his lower back, the last one to fuse his spine, and two years later he won his 15th major at the Masters.
Another number worth noting is 59 — the age of Tom Watson when he was an 8-foot par putt away from winning the British Open at Turnberry in 2009. The year before, Greg Norman was 53 when he had the 54-hole lead at Royal Birkdale.
Courses for the U.S. majors might be getting too big for the 48-year-old Woods, whose body is held together by hardware. But there is something about links golf that is timeless.
“The older you get, the less you can carry the golf ball,” Woods said. “But over here, you can run the golf ball 100 yards if you get the right wind and the right trajectory. … You can play on the ground. You can burn it on the ground with a 1-iron, 2-iron, 3-wood, whatever.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why you see older champions up there on the board because they’re not forced to have to carry the ball 320 yards.”
Woods always will be linked with Augusta National because of his watershed win at age 21 when he won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots, and it is the major he has won the most times. But for all his power as a younger man, no one hit irons like Woods. The flight of his shots was ideal for the links golf. It still is.
Woods showed up Tuesday wearing shorts, with a black compression sleeve covering his right leg. That was a clear reminder that age isn’t as big an issue as health. Woods has been forthright in explaining his dilemma. His body won’t allow him to play a full schedule, and when he shows up at the majors, he has to deal with competitive rust.
He could play more and risk not playing where it matters. That’s something he will have to sort out. And it was telling that the PGA Tour created an exemption category exclusively for him to play in the $20 million signature events by adding him to the field — he wouldn’t be taking a spot away from another player.
How much he plays next year will be worth watching.
In the meantime, Woods has been at Royal Troon since Sunday. He has high hopes. Maybe they are unrealistic based on the scores he is positing, but they are his hopes.
“There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go,” Montgomerie said. “Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.”
The truth is probably somewhere in between. But perhaps Woods still feels he can win because unlike Montgomerie, he has done it before.
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