If Tiger isn't competitive at the British Open, Monty may be right

If you’re old enough to remember Tiger Woods’ origins, you’ll feel a nostalgic pleasure in the thought that he can still dunk on Colin Montgomerie with the same skill he did in the 1997 Masters, a third round that changed the course of golf history.

Back then, it was Tiger Woods who delivered a nine-shot correction after Monty suggested the 21-year-old’s lack of major experience could leave him vulnerable this weekend. Twenty-seven years later, the debate has shifted to retirement, with the ever-serious Scottish legend suggesting in an interview last week that it might be time for Woods – aged just 48 but with a body weakened by injuries – to step down rather than compete in another Open like the one that begins on Thursday at Royal Troon.

“As a former champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60. Colin’s not,” Woods said wryly when asked about Montgomerie’s comments Tuesday morning. “He’s not a former champion, so he’s not exempt, so he doesn’t get to make that decision. I do.”

It’s an incredible burn. It’s especially funny when you think of Monty, 27 years later, who, without his major, goes after Tiger once again and ends up with a heel print on his back. Some things never change.

Woods isn’t wrong. Even though he’s now ranked 874th in the world and hasn’t been competitive since the 2021 car accident that shattered his right leg, he’s earned the right to play professional golf for as long as he wants, in whatever form he wants.

Even if his presence is purely ceremonial, no one should try to push the best player we’ve ever seen off the golf course. It doesn’t hurt anyone to let Woods walk around and greet a crowd that’s eager to see a single shot that might give them the same feeling they had watching him as a kid.

But Montgomerie, in the full context of his comments in the Times of London, is not wrong either. East Is Woods trying to accomplish something there?

“I hope people remember Tiger for who he was, the passion and the charisma that surrounded him,” Montgomerie said. “There’s none of that now. At Pinehurst (at the recent US Open), he didn’t seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing? He’s coming to Troon and he’s not going to enjoy it either.’”

The interview then turns to the idea – which Woods himself has promoted – that he will hang up his boots and stop playing in these majors when he feels he can no longer be competitive.

“Aren’t we there yet?” Montgomerie said. “I would have thought we’d be past that. There’s a time when all sportspeople have to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go. Obviously he still feels he can win. We’re more realistic.”

There would be nothing more exciting in sport this year — perhaps this entire decade — than to see Woods top Montgomerie this week by winning the Claret Jug for the fourth time.

But let’s be realistic for a second.

Even though Woods dutifully shows up to every major he’s healthy enough for and goes to the pre-tournament press conference saying he believes he can win, there’s no evidence on the course that this is an illusion.

The fact that Woods managed to qualify for the 2022 Masters, just over a year after the accident, was a near miracle that inspired all golf fans. His subsequent attempts at playing in the majors have been, to be frank, uninteresting, even uncomfortable.

That’s the big problem here.

If Woods were to accept the idea that at this point in his life he’s primarily coming to majors to give back to the game and to allow fans to appreciate all he’s accomplished, that would make perfect sense. That’s what Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer did for years after their competitive eras ended, and every now and then they’d pop up on the leaderboard for a round or two and get everyone excited.

But that’s not what Woods is doing. And it’s something he’s always said he doesn’t want to do. Asked Tuesday if his belief that he can still win has wavered given the time he has left to compete for titles, Woods firmly and quickly said no.

“I will play as long as I can play and feel I can still win the event,” he said.

Woods knows more than anyone about his fitness, his game and his opponents. But how do you understand that he’s here to win when he doesn’t play competitive rounds outside of majors, is physically unable to practice the way he wants to and struggles to finish four rounds when he does play? And we’re not just talking about his struggles with the classics like five-foot putts and deep rough. On Friday, after his surgically repaired back, knee and ankle were put through their paces, it all feels like agony.

This year at the Masters, while he managed to make the cut after shooting a solid 73-72, he didn’t have much left for the weekend and he finished 82-77.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. The idea that Woods is tarnishing his legacy if he misses the cut is completely absurd. But if the goal is truly to win another major, would he have been better served by finding one or two events where he could theoretically compete and get useful repeats, or by going straight to the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, where he had no chance to begin with?

At this point, the Open is clearly the course where Woods has the best chance of doing something special. The courses are easier to walk, the driving distance is not as great, and the need to play different types of shots and trajectories benefits the more experienced and creative players. It is no coincidence that four men over 40 have won the last 12 Opens, and Tom Watson nearly did so in 2009 at the age of 59.

If Woods could still play good golf, it would be entirely reasonable to think he could do what they did at Troon. But at this point, he’s trying to do it as a player who, in a sense, has already retired.

He wouldn’t put it that way, but he’s played nine official tournaments since the 2021 car accident, seven of them majors. If it’s simply too physically difficult for him to play more than that, then Montgomerie is probably fundamentally right: We’re past the point where it makes sense to consider his presence in majors competitive.

Woods clearly isn’t ready to accept that. He said Tuesday that he’s “been working hard in the gym” since the U.S. Open, that he’s hitting the ball better and that he’s done some things lately that he hasn’t been able to do all year.

We’ll see on Thursday if that translates not only into a decent score, but also into something that makes us think about what’s still possible instead of just lamenting what once was.

It goes without saying that Woods can continue to play this game until the end of time, and we’ll always be here for it because he’s Tiger. But what Montgomerie said is that it’s hard to take Woods seriously as the competitive threat he says he wants to be when he’s done so little to show that’s true.

Woods made a nice statement Tuesday to put one of his long-standing rivalries to rest. But unless he can get something out of it on the course, we may have to admit Monty was right.

Source link

If Tiger isn’t competitive at the British Open, Monty may be right

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply