TROON, Scotland (AP) — Tiger Woods set a new career record Friday at the British Open, a record he could have done without but perhaps expected.
Woods shot a career-best 36-hole score of 156 as a professional and missed the cut in a major championship for the third consecutive time.
He tapped in for his customary par on the 18th hole at Royal Troon to sign for a six-over 77, but a double bogey caused an early slowdown and his score didn’t improve throughout the day.
“It wasn’t very good,” Woods said, “I should have gone the other way and I took a double shot off the hopper. I was struggling all day. I just couldn’t hit it close enough for a birdie and ended up with a lot of bogeys.”
That brought the shortened season to an abrupt end.
Woods said he won’t play until December, which could be the unofficial 20-player Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He specifically mentioned the PNC Championship, which he jokingly calls his fifth major, a 36-hole exhibition he will play with his 15-year-old son, Charlie.
It was the first time he had played in all four Grand Slam tournaments since 2019, when he won the Masters for his 15th major championship, but he has played in just one other tournament and withdrew after 24 holes from the Genesis Invitational in February due to the flu.
He needs to play more to get back on track, but doing so risks putting too much strain on a body that’s been hurt by back surgery, knee surgery and a shattered right foot and ankle in a February 2021 car accident.
It’s quite a dilemma for a player who turns 49 at the end of the year.
“I would have liked to play more, but I wanted to make sure I got into the majors this year,” he said. “I’ve had that all year, but I took a lot of time off to get fit.”
“Physically I’m getting better, which is great, and I just need to keep progressing and eventually start playing more competitively and get back in the competitive flow.”
He never liked the idea of being a ceremonial golfer, but the scores suggest it.
His average score in the 10 rounds of major championships this year is 75.6. He has shot over par in every round except for the first round of the Masters, when he shot an even par 72, and has shot par in 15 consecutive rounds in major championships since then.
Woods also shot 156 when he missed the cut at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay while returning from the first of five back surgeries. The only other time he had a higher 36-hole score was when he shot 157 at Bay Hill in 1994 as a high school senior.
It wasn’t all bad at Royal Troon, with a big ceremony going on: Shane Lowry got the loudest cheers after taking the lead after 36 holes, but Woods got the loudest cheers.
The Open honors its winners, and Woods has long been treated like royalty. He hit his approach onto the 18th green and began to walk slowly between the two large stands. As he approached the green, fans young and old rose to their feet, and warm applause quickly turned to thunderous cheers.
Woods took off his hat to salute the crowd and waved again as he left the green. Every time he plays in the British Open, fans worry that it might be the last time they see him.
But he has not ruled out a return: The British Open will return to Royal Portrush in 2025.
Asked if he would be there, Woods replied, “Oh, absolutely.”
All he can do is play better and get a little sharper, which made the cut inevitable as he started with a 79, his best score in a major tournament since his 80 at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
To qualify he needed his best result since before his car accident, but those hopes were soon dashed.
He went from the left rough to the right of the green on the par-4 second hole. He had to pop over the edge of a pot bunker, but the ball landed on a slope and flew forward through the green. But he had another slope on his line to the hole, so he had to chip it. It was a little too hard, and it was about four feet away, so his bogey putt didn’t even touch the hole.
This has been the most glaring issue for Woods since his return from a car accident: All attention has been on his feet as he wanders the golf course, with almost no attention on his hands, gripping what was once golf’s most reliable stroke: the putter.
Woods looked like he could do little except for the par-5 sixth hole, which was his best stretch of the day. He picked a good lie in the right rough and left rough, then hit a 3-wood to 20 feet to the green and down the middle.
He had some good chances, including on the infamous “Post Stamp” eighth green, where his tee shot headed into a deep bunker on the right side of the green, but struck the head of a sprinkler and came to rest, giving him an easy par.
He had some bad luck, but none as bad as the par-5 16th hole, when he hit a long iron with the wind at his back and a perfect shot, but the ball landed on the backside of a hill, flew forward, rolled about 75 yards and fell into a creek.
But it was too late. After a double bogey on the second hole, he was always in double digits over par and never threatened to catch up.
But it sounded as though he was planning on returning.
“I’ve always loved playing in majors, and I wish I was in better physical condition going into a major,” he said. “It tests you mentally, physically and emotionally, and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. I wanted to be sharper, but I just wasn’t.”
