Swing and two mistakes: Pine Hurst is probably alone in golf and somehow fled Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods will tea off at the 18th hole at the US Open Golf Tournament practice rising on Monday, the second largest in Pine Hurst.
USA TODAY SPORTS PINEHURST When Tiger Woods created a short birdie putt in the 72nd hall on Sunday 19 years ago, there was a sudden short expectation moment.
The sun was sitting, the church bell was allowed in the village, and the dust exploded at the 18th fairway of Pain Hurst N ° 2 in glooming, but for a moment everyone in Bondon wanted to see it again. This is a distant opportunity.
The bird pulled the forest with a two -stroke of Michael Campbell, who played at the 17th hole behind him. The last Sunday after leading the best opportunity with people who scared 16 and 17 years old at the opening in 2005, at the rare moment of his unusual career, he fought on the last day. Fighted in the last hole.
There was little collective confidence that Campbell would not do the same – the unlikely New Zealander called for calm in the portable toilets in the final round – and the knockout stage certainly looked within the realm of realistic results. But Woods had barely crossed the green before Campbell’s 17th-minute birdie went on the scoreboard.
The embryo began to be destroyed, even if there were two groups that had not been passed yet. Woods was rejected six years ago by their amazing drama support actors Pain Stuart and Phil Michelson, but failed again. Pinehurst Resort and Country Club occupies a special and unlikely place in Woods’ mountain, a place he covets as much, if not more, than any other.
Twice Woods arrived at Pinehurst popular, twice he was nearly conquered, twice he left dissatisfied. This week, he returned as a much older man, still searching for the success that had eluded him in the Sandhills. “I’ve had a little bit of success here,” Woods said Tuesday.
That’s a lot less anywhere else for a man who’s been more successful than anyone since the first shepherd picked up the first piece of driftwood to smash into the rocks. He was two shots behind Stewart in 1999, at the height of his youth, and two shots behind Campbell in 2005, at the end of a day that began with everyone expecting him to take control and win, in an era when such incredible things as the Sunday redshirt became commonplace.
Even his absence in 2014 was notable, marking the end of his mid-career resurgence. He was forced to withdraw from the first of four back surgeries after overcoming personal and physical struggles to regain his No. 1 ranking. In addition to his 15 major titles, Woods has finished within touching distance of the winner nine times.
Two of them have come here. Finishing in the top 20 this week, while unlikely, will make him just the third player in the last century to finish in the top 20 three times at the U.S. Open in the same venue — a surprising record, especially given his disappointment at Pinehurst, which came during his most dominant era.
(Gary Player and Sam Snead are the others, making him one of the few golf fraternities to which Woods has not yet been admitted.) This is the golf course and site of the British Open, which has become synonymous with Woods’ rare failures. He is certainly not alone. Woods did not win in Oka. Or Baltusrol. Or Shinnecock. But even at the peak of his career, he came close at Pinehurst, with only one win, coming on No. 7 in the 1992 Big I Junior Classic.
Not exactly the Wanamaker Trophy, Woods was five years away from winning his first Masters. He is five years removed from his last Masters victory, he is not the same player he was in 1999 or 2005, he is much older, overbuilt, and it is no wonder he has struggled to keep up with the physical demands of such courses and slopes as Augusta and Southern Hills.
But Pinehurst is relatively flat and perfectly walkable. Games will be played at a slow pace as players navigate unfamiliar and increasingly dangerous green complexes. His aching, aging joints will move freely in the heat. He showed flashes of his undeniable talent at the Masters, and a course that will likely test him both mentally and physically could help him showcase his remaining strengths. “I feel like I have the ability to do this,” Woods said. “I just have to do it.
This golf course is going to test every single aspect of your game, especially mentally, and just the mental discipline that it takes to play this particular golf course, it’s going to take a lot.” As stacked as the odds are against him — he’s made the cut at the open once in four tries since 2013 — this may be his last chance to compete for the triumph that has come so close but remained so far away at Pinehurst. (He’ll be 53 when the Open returns in 2029.)
Woods walked away frustrated as the commanding favorite in his previous two attempts, but he’s only a sentimental favorite this time around, two years older than Jack Nicklaus was at Augusta in 1986, but two years younger than Mickelson was at Kiawah in 2021. It’s been a long time since Woods seemed destined to make his mark at Pinehurst.
So long. Maybe he can still do it. He felt like this tournament should have been a loss for him twice. Maybe it’s his turn to win this time.
