The finest perk of winning a major might just be the way it can impact literally the rest of an entire career. Even a single major victory guarantees that no matter what else happens in your career, you’ll be playing that major for years, even decades into the future. But then, the opposite corollary is true: If you can’t manage to secure that major win, it will haunt you for the rest of your days.
Tiger Woods hasn’t won the British Open since 2006. But he’s still won it three times, which is three times more than you, me or Colin Montgomerie. Monty is many things — a decorated professional, a Ryder Cup champion — but he never won the British Open, only coming as close as a solo second-place finish in 2005. He’s played the tournament only once in the past 14 years, finishing 78th in 2016.
Last weekend, Montgomerie made the call for Woods to retire once and for all. “Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there,” Montgomerie said. “There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go.”
Woods hasn’t finished higher than T37 in any major in the 2020s, and he’s withdrawn from or missed the cut at five of the past six majors he’s played. But even if his game has softened, his competitive edge hasn’t. Asked prior to this week’s British Open about Montgomerie’s call for him to hang it up, Woods grinned.
“As a past champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60,” Woods said. “Colin’s not. He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.”
Woods continues to attempt to recover from a series of injuries and surgeries. If there’s a positive to take from his appearance at Troon this week, it’s the fact that this is the first year since 2019 that he’ll even tee it up in all four majors.
“I’ve been training a lot better. We’ve been busting it pretty hard in the gym, which has been good. Body’s been feeling better to be able to do such things, and it translates on being able to hit the ball better,” he said. “I’m able to do some things that I haven’t done all year, which is nice.”
Woods touched on a range of topics at his news conference, including the reason why he wasn’t able to serve as Ryder Cup captain for 2025, a job that eventually went to Keegan Bradley: “I just didn’t feel like I could do the job properly. I couldn’t devote the time,” he said. “I barely had enough time to do what I’m doing right now, and add in the TGL starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup. You add all that together and then with our negotiations with the [Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia], all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there’s only so many hours in the day.”
As for those negotiations with PIF, the financial backer of LIV Golf and the driving force behind golf’s current schism, Woods repeated a line he’s often stated. “We’re making progress. I can’t tell you more than that just because we’re not going to negotiate on the outside,” he said. “We’ve got to keep everything at a high level and private, but things are moving and things are changing. It’s evolving each and every day. There’s emails and chains and texts and ideas that we bounce back and forth from both sides. … We’re now into not just charitable endeavors, we’re into a for-profit model. So we have to make [financial] returns.”
As for his own game, Woods reiterated that he’s not at the Open as a ceremonial golfer. “I’ll play as long as I can play and I feel like I can still win the event,” he said. Asked directly if his belief has wavered that he could win, Woods replied simply, “No.”
If Woods can put together a few more shots out on the course at Royal Troon this week like the one he took at Mongomerie, he might just have a chance.
