Tiger Woods tied a personal record in the British Open on Friday, one he could have done without but perhaps should come to expect.
Woods matched his highest 36-hole score as a professional — 156 — to miss the cut for the third straight time in a major.
He tapped in for a routine par on the 18th hole at Royal Troon and signed for a 6-over 77, a round that got away from him early with a double bogey and never improved during the day.
“It wasn't very good,” Woods said. “I made a double right out of the hopper when I needed to go the other way. 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.”
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That brought a short season to an abrupt end.
Woods said he won't play again until December, possibly his unofficial Hero World Challenge with a 20-man field in the Bahamas. He specifically referenced what he jokingly calls his fifth major, the PNC Championship, a 36-hole exhibition where he plays alongside his 15-year-old son Charlie.
He played all four majors for the first time since 2019 — the year he won the Masters for his 15th career major — but played only one other tournament, withdrawing after 24 holes in the Genesis Invitational in February because of the flu.
He needs to play more to get sharp. But playing more risks taking a toll on a body that has been battered by back surgeries, knee surgeries and a February 2021 car crash that shattered his right leg and ankle.
It's the ultimate Catch-22 for a player who turns 49 at the end of the year.
“I'd like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year,” he said. "I got a lot of time off to get better, to be better physically, which has been the case all year.
“Physically I’ve gotten better, which is great. 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.”
He has never liked the idea of being a ceremonial golfer, but that's what the scores suggest.
In his 10 rounds at the majors this year, his average score was 75.6. He shot over par in all but one round — an even-par 72 in the first round at the Masters — and has gone 15 consecutive rounds in the majors since he last broke par.
Woods also had a 156 when he missed the cut in the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, where he was trying to return from the first of what would be five back surgeries. His only 36-hole score higher was a 157 at Bay Hill in 1994 when he was a high school senior.
There was plenty of ceremony at Royal Troon, and it wasn't all bad. Shane Lowry, who took the early 36-hole lead, had the loudest gallery. Woods had the biggest one.
They honor their champions at the British Open, and Woods long has been treated like royalty. He hit his approach onto the 18th green and began the slow walk between two large grandstands. Warm applause soon gave way to a roaring ovation as fans young and old rose to their feet the closer he got to the green.
Woods removed his cap and saluted the crowd, and waved to them again as he walked off the green. Every British Open he plays leaves fans wondering if that will be the last they see him.
But he wasn't ruling out a return. The British Open returns to Royal Portrush in 2025.
“Yeah, definitely,” Woods said when asked if he would be there.
He can only hope he brings a better brand of game, that he can be a little more sharp. That he missed the cut was inevitable the way he started with a 79, his highest start in a major since an 80 in that U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
To make the cut, he would have needed a score he hasn't produced since before his car crash. And those hopes ended quickly.
He went from the left rough to right of the green at the par-4 second hole. He had to pitch over the edge of a pot bunker, and the ball landed on a slope and shot forward just through the green. But he had another slope in his line to the hole, so he had to chip that. It was a little strong, 4 feet by, and his bogey putt didn't even touch the hole.
That's been the most glaring issue for Woods in his return from the car crash. So much attention is on his legs carrying him around the golf course. Little is made of his hands on a putter that used to be the most reliable stroke in golf.
Woods rarely looked like he was going to make anything except on the par-5 sixth hole, his best sequence of the day. Woods went for the right rough to a good lie in the left rough, and he smoked a 3-wood onto the green to 20 feet and poured it in the middle.
He had a few good breaks. On the notorious “Postage Stamp” eighth green, his tee shot was headed for a deep bunker right of the green when it was stopped by landing in a sprinkler head and he made an easy par.
He had some bad breaks, none worse than the par-5 16th. He hit a long iron with the wind at his back, a perfect shot except that it landed on a the back side of a hump, shot forward and rolled some 75 yards until it tumbled into the burn.
By then, however, it was too late. He was always double digits over par from his double bogey on No. 2 and never threatened to make a run.
But he sounded as though he would be back for more.
“I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” he said. “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."
