Low-key sympathy as good as it gets for diminished Woods’

From the 18th hole at Royal Troon, to the media mixed zone for a handful of questions, and then into the back of a car, with the engine running, and away.

Airport bound at 2.34pm. Private jet to Florida. Back home for dinner.

Coming up 18, there was respectful applause for Woods and there was a different feel to it.

Slightly low-key. Sympathetic. There was a cry of, ‘Thanks for coming, Tiger’ which was well-meaning, but sounded a little cringe-making.

Everybody, you sensed, was sad to see this version of him, but there’s no other version these days, alas. For the unsurpassable genius of yesteryear, this is as good as it gets now.

Friday – a day that saw golf carnage visited upon the giants as much as the minnows – marked Woods’ third missed cut on the bounce in the majors this year.

He added a 77 to his 79 on Thursday, more high numbers to sit alongside his 74 and 73 at the US Open at Pinehurst, his 72 and 77 at the PGA at Valhalla, and his 73, 72, 82 and 77 at the Masters, where he finished last of those who made the cut.

That’s 44- over par for Woods’ major championship season.

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There was a milestone, of sorts, early in his second round on the blowy Ayrshire coast.

Out on the par-three fifth, Woods found one of those cavernous bunkers that makes you weep. He made bogey. A landmark, in a sense.

If you start counting from the major after he won at Augusta in 2019 – in other words, his past 14 – Woods was now a cumulative 100 over par.

It got worse, of course. The par-five 16th was downwind on Friday with a burn at around 307 yards.

Woods, the master game-manager in his pomp, took out a driving iron and smashed it, the ball careering through the air and rolling into the hazard. Another error.

In modern golf, there has been no better man to plot his way through trappy conditions, but that was the old Tiger.

His body has failed him. He’s a shadow of the force he once was and nothing is going to allow him to turn back time at this point, no matter how much he says it can be done and no matter how much his fans want to see it happen.

By the time he pulled out of the gates and headed for the airport, he was 104 over for those majors. There are four 77s in that run, four 78s, two 79s and an 82.

“Well, it wasn’t very good,” he said. “I made a double at two right out of the hopper when I needed to go the other way.

“I just was fighting it pretty much all day. I never really hit it close enough to make birdies and consequently made a lot of bogeys.”

Media caption,

‘Absolutely brilliant!’ – Rahm & Rose feature in day two best shots

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There was a question hanging in the air and not a lot of time to get to it. Or questions, to be more precise.

Why is he doing this to himself? What enjoyment is he deriving from it? How could the greatest golfer most of us have ever seen – and are ever likely to see – take any solace from being a bit-part player on the stage he owned for so long?

His body is in need of constant care, so there’s little prospect of him ever playing enough golf to sharpen his game in lesser tournaments to prepare for the majors.

He’s trapped in a cycle of mediocrity at best and it’s become difficult to watch.

“I’ve gotten better, even though my results really haven’t shown it,” he said, with the kind of defiance – you might argue, delusion – that he displayed when saying on Tuesday he felt he could compete here this week.

“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.

“I’m going to just keep getting physically better and keep working on it.”

Had another missed cut – by a country mile – not proven a sobering experience? “No, I loved it,” he replied.

Woods never lets his guard down but there was a barrier made of reinforced steel in front of him at that point.

Out there, getting blown off course, and hitting shots that his imperious, fitter self would never have hit, he did not look like a man who was loving anything bar the thought of the journey home.

“I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” he said.

“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.”

Will he be at Portrush next year? That was the Hail Mary question, the one dispatched in hope of a: ‘No, I think I’m done, this is my last Open.’

Only in his comments and the way he straight bats questions is Tiger performing at his old, stratospheric level.

“Yeah, definitely.”

Will he be back playing competitively in Scotland again? The chat is that The Open might well return to these shores in 2027 at Muirfield.

“Yeah, I’ve won two Open Championships here in Scotland, so I’ve always enjoyed playing up here and enjoyed the different types of links that Scotland brings.”

Woods was adamant that this will not be his last Open Championship

Woods comes across as a man who’s hating the struggle but can’t let go.

There’s been chin-stroking about his legacy and the damage he might be doing to it by hanging on, waiting for a better tomorrow that must know in his heart of hearts will not come.

There is no danger to his legacy. None at all. The 15 major victories will live on.

The 11 years as world number one will probably never be matched. He won the Tiger Slam by finishing a combined 86 shots better than the next best player.

During 1997-2013 – his wonder years – he was 126 under par in majors. The next best, from players who had recorded at least 90 rounds, was 251 strokes behind.

You can fill the walls of golf’s Hall of Fame with stats reflecting Woods’ greatness. His toil at Troon, or anywhere else, is going to be forgotten in time.

Who remembers how Jack Nicklaus finished as a professional golfer? He missed 10 cuts in his last 11 majors. He had one top-20 in his last 40.

Nobody cares. Nicklaus is revered for what he achieved and it will be that way for Woods, too. Nothing will impact that.

You just wish that it didn’t have to be this way right now. He raised his cap and smiled at the reception he received on the 18th green.

Gone for now, but returning for sure and still believing that there is one more miracle left inside him.