“Shall we see you at Portrush?”
“Portrush, see you next year at Portrush?”
“Portrush. Is it … open next year? Oh, yeah. Definitely.”
Then he smiled and said, “I’m sorry. There is one year left. No, sorry.”
That joy erupted in this final major of 2024 to end his prime season at age 48, with his screen hopeless 77 on Friday amid brooding clouds and a breeze off the Firth of Clyde. That helped break the 14-over tie. The cut line fell in 6 overs. The four majors he entered saw him miss three cuts in his five tournament record overall, a rule that has eluded him as a pro in his first 37 majors, but has happened in half of his 14 majors since winning the 2019 Masters. .
On the upside, the 15-time major winner, 82-time PGA Tour winner and crowd magnet has entered every major played since 2020. After his horrific early-morning car accident in February 2021 and subsequent surgeries, he traveled to zero majors in 2021, three in 2022 and one in 2023, pulling out of the 2022 PGA Championship and the 2023 Masters.
“I want to play more, but I want to say for sure that I was able to play in the Majors this year. I had a lot of time to get better and it’s been all year. Even though my results don’t really show it, I’ve gotten better. But physically I’ve gotten better, which is a lot. Well done, so just keep improving and then start playing more competitively and start getting back into the competitive groove.
“Our fifth major,” he winked, adding that he left later in the year, including a father-son event in December.
Here comes Colin Montgomery, an eight-time winner of the European Tour Order of Merit who could never claim a major, telling the Times of London that Woods wants to retire so Woods doesn’t fade away these non-competitive years. Dominate all past. “Well,” Woods said Tuesday, “as a past champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60. Colin isn’t. He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So he doesn’t have a chance to make that decision. I will.”
Once the Royal Troon course had its wind blown out of surprising directions, Woods was pushed worse than at any other major this year. He made the cut at the Masters with a great start of 72-73, but went 82-77 to finish tied for 60th, then missed the cut by eight shots (7 over par) and two at the PGA Championship in Louisville. Shots (5 over par) at the US Open in North Carolina. Here, he said, “Well, that’s not good,” and he laughed there. “Made a double [bogey] When I needed it to go the other way from the hop there at 2, I was fighting it all day. Never got close enough to make birdies, and as a result, I made a lot of bogeys.
He made five, and that one double-bogey when he went to his home stretch (way off the tee), some rough and some ledges to No. Met 2.
“I loved it,” he added. “I’ve always wanted to play in major championships. I want to be more physical” — and he searched for a word very briefly — “sharp in the majors. Obviously, it tests you mentally, physically and emotionally, and I’m not as sharp as I should be.” , I hoped to find it somehow and never did.
“I mean, he only plays major championships,” Xander Schauffele said Thursday after playing alongside Woods and Patrick Cantlay. “He’s making himself as hard as he can and I know he’s making it hard on himself. It’s hard. I think he’s learning. He needs to learn a little bit more about his body, what he can and can’t do. I think he’ll want to prepare more at home if his body allows it. I believe.
That’s where Woods will try to aim for in 2025.
