Colin Montgomerie wants Tiger Woods to face reality: “What on earth is he doing?”
Since suffering serious injuries to his right leg in a car accident in February 2021, Tiger Woods has been far from the 82-time winner he was in when he dominated the 2019 Masters, playing only nine official appearances since then and qualifying only three times. At 48, Wood looks old enough to be a former football and baseball player, but he’s still competing with an increasingly younger and more talented crop of stars.
Woods is expected to play in next week’s British Open at Royal Troon in relative health, marking his fifth start of the season, but his final two tournaments are the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. For Woods fans, it can be almost as painful to watch him struggle as the actual discomfort he must feel in many parts of his body. Include in this group one of his former competitors, the Scot Collin Montgomerie. The 61-year-old Monty witnessed Tiger’s heyday firsthand on the PGA Tour, in the majors and in the Ryder Cup, and the 31-time DP World Tour winner looks at Woods today and says he can’t understand why one of the greatest players of all time is settling for mediocrity. “I hope people remember Tiger for the way he was, the passion and the aura of charisma that surrounded him,” Montgomerie said in a lengthy interview about his career in The Times of London. “That’s not the case now. At Pinehurst, he didn’t seem to enjoy a single shot, and you’re thinking, ‘What on earth is he doing?’ He’ll come to Troon and he won’t like it there either.”
After Woods shot 74-73 at Pinehurst in June, he was asked that week if he thought it might be his last U.S. Open. Ultimately, the 15-time Grand Slam champion accepted a special allowance from the USGA to play in the tournament. “Maybe, maybe not,” was Woods’ answer.
Montgomery thinks he has the definitive answer. “Aren’t we there?” I would have thought we had been there. “All athletes have time to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go,” he said. “Obviously he still feels like he can win. We are more realistic.
