Royal Troon: Tiger Woods may have thrown away a lot of shots to miss the cut in the 152nd Open Championship, but he surely isn’t throwing in the towel.
A completely different wind whipping up from the nearby Firth of Clyde made the front nine at Royal Troon play a lot harder, and the 15-time major champion was unable to get anything going after an early double bogey on the second hole.
He eventually finished on 14-over, 21 shots behind clubhouse leader Shane Lowry of Ireland, with rounds of 79 and 77. Throughout the 36 holes, Woods had only three birdies to show on his card and it resulted in the third straight missed cut for the former world No.1.
Woods has played only the four Major championships this season as he tries to make a comeback after a subtalar fusion in his ankle. He was tied 60th at The Masters, where he struggled in the cold conditions over the weekend, and even though his gait has progressively gotten better, he continues to make mistakes that one could never have associated with Woods in his prime.
Playing more competitive events could be the key for him, but Woods insists he is not going to enter any other tournament from now to December, when he intends to be part of the limited field at the Hero World Challenge in Bahamas, followed by the outing with his son Charlie at the PNC Father and Son Challenge.
“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. I got a lot of time off to get better, to be better physically, which has been the case all year,” said Woods as he blew away the rumours that this could be his last Open Championship.
“I’ve gotten better, even though my results really haven’t shown it, but 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.
“I’m not going to play until then (Hero World Challenge). I’m going to just keep getting physically better and keep working on it. Hopefully, just come back for Hero and our fifth major, the Father/Son. So, looking forward to it.”
Despite the two battling rounds at Royal Troon, Woods said he loved the challenges posed by the famous links course, and by the major championships generally.
“I loved it. I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” said Woods.
“I’ve won two Open Championships here in Scotland, so I’ve always enjoyed playing up here and enjoyed the different types of links that Scotland has and the challenges they pose.
I’ve missed playing Troon. It’s been a long time. I remember playing here way back in ‘97. I’ve had some good memories here. I just wish I’d done a little bit better and looking forward to playing Portrush next year.
“Obviously, the majors test you mentally, physically, and 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. Consequently, my results and scores were pretty high.
“It wasn’t very good (this week). I made a double there at the second hole right out of the gates 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.”
Relatively unknown English player Daniel Brown was closest to leader Lowry (7-under), at 5-under par after a round of 1-over 72. Former US Open champion and a qualifier this week, Justin Rose was third at three-under through 14 holes in his second round.
India’s Shubhankar Sharma was battling hard to make it to the weekend. He was one-over par for the day through 14 holes and six-over par total, which puts him outside the cut-line by one shot.
