Tiger Woods sees bright side despite missing cut at British Open

On Friday, Woods shot 77. He said his fitness has improved, though “the results don’t really show it.”

TROON, Scotland — Near the end of his brief appearance on Friday, Tiger Woods, who was starting to emerge from the 152nd British Open, ran into a cross-accented mess. “Will we see you again in Portrush?” was the question, referring to the British Open hosting in Northern Ireland in 2025.

“What is this?” » Woods asked. “Will we see you in Portrush?”

“Where?”

“Portrush, will we see you in Portrush next year?”

“Portrache. Is that… next year’s Open?” “Yeah, that’s right.”

Then he laughed and said, “Sorry.” That will be in a year. No, sorry.”

That burst of fun meant his major season ended at age 48 in the final major of 2024, and on a windy Friday in the Firth of Clyde under low clouds, at a forlorn 77. This brought the score to 14 over par. The cut off line was 6 over par. He missed four majors he played in three times out of the five total majors he played in, avoiding that fate in his first 37 majors as a professional, but suffering that fate in half of the 14 majors he played in since winning the Masters in 2019.

Meanwhile, the team he’s always been watching is a crowd-pleasing team with 15 major championships, 82 PGA Tour wins, and a record 100% record, playing in every major for the first time since 2020. After the car accident was torn in February 2021 and subsequent operations, he became a zero major in 2021, three in 2022, one in 2023, PGA 2022 championship and 2023 masters. I abandoned it.

“I want to play more,” he said, “But I wanted to be convinced that I could play a major championship this year. I had a lot of time to improve myself, but it was all year round. Even if my results did not actually show it, I improved. But physically, I have improved. That’s a great thing, so I have to continue that way, start playing with more competitive, and restart the fierce competition. “”

He is winking like “our fifth major”, including the events of his father and son in December.

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He was here, but Colin Mongomery, eight winners of Europe’s achievements in a tour that could not claim a major, told the London Times. “Well,” Woods said on Tuesday, “I have been exempted for 60 years as a former champion. Colin’s not. He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So he didn’t have a chance to make this decision. I got it. »

Going into the Royal Troon course, the wind was blowing in an unexpected direction, and Woods struggled more than he has in any other major this year. He qualified for the Masters with a very good 72-73 start, but struggled to 82-77 to finish 60th, then missed the cut by eight strokes at the PGA Championship in Louisville (7 over par) and by two strokes at the U.S. Open in North Carolina (5 over par). Here he said, “Well, that wasn’t very good,” and he smiled. “I had a double (bogey) on the second hole right after the jump and I wanted to go the other way so I struggled with it pretty much all day. I just couldn’t get it close enough to get a birdie so I ended up with a lot of bogeys,” he said. He made five, plus a double bogey, while playing No. 2, visiting a local course (well off the tee), a little rough and a little different.

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“I liked it,” he said. “I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically” — and he very briefly searched for a word — “sharp coming into the majors. Obviously it tests you mentally, physically and emotionally and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be and I was hoping that somehow I would find it, but I I never could.

“I mean, he only plays in the major championships,” Xander Schauffele said Thursday after playing alongside Woods and Patrick Cantlay. “He makes himself as hard as possible, and I know he’s hard on himself too. It’s just difficult. I think he learns. He needs to learn a bit more about his body, what it can and can’t do. I’m sure he’ll want to do more preparation at home if his body allows.”

This is where Woods will aim to be from now until 2025, and possibly all the way to Portrush.