Woods says he can win in Britain; stop snickering
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — It has been five years and four back surgeries since Tiger Woods last contended at a British Open. He has not swung a club in the event since 2015, when he missed the cut.
Today at Carnoustie, Woods will once again be making a comeback. Feel free to yawn or roll your eyes.
The golf world has been here before, and not long ago. In April, the breathless longing for Woods to reclaim a piece of his former greatness made him a favorite at the Masters.
He instead finished tied for 32nd. Given that outcome, making Woods a favorite this week might seem equally foolhardy, if not downright irrational.
And yet an array of factors have raised Woods into the realm of contenders here. His advantages include the condition of the fast, baked-dry Carnoustie fairways and his status as a relative elder, considering four of the last seven British Open champions have been in their 40s. (A fifth, Zach Johnson, was 39 when he won in 2015.)
Then, on Tuesday, in a surprisingly candid admission, Woods conceded that he thought that the British Open — in general — was his best chance to win his next major championship. It almost sounded as if Woods, who has won the British Open three times, believed he eventually could win the event more than four times.
Asked if the British Open was indeed where he most likely would win a 15th career major championship, a relaxed, smiling Woods paused and then wryly answered, “Not to be smart, but it is the next major I’m playing.”
When the laughter subsided, Woods continued: “As far as longterm, certainly, I would say yes, because of the fact that you don’t have to be long to play on a linksstyle golf course.
“You get to places like Augusta National, where it’s just a big ballpark and the golf course outgrows you. But on a links-style golf course, you can roll the ball. Distance becomes a moot point.”
To fortify his point, Woods talked about how he hit a 3-iron 333 yards in a Monday practice round at Carnoustie, where a hot, dry summer has left the fairways as hard as an airport tarmac. Every player has been talking about the seemingly endless bounce of their iron shots.
Justin Thomas said his 5-iron “will roll until it runs into something.”
It is a circumstance that could be more beneficial to Woods than others in the field. Iron shots traveling more than 300 yards will mean that Woods can ignore his frequently wayward driver, the club that has doomed many of his opportunities to win so many tournaments in the last few years.
For most of the last two months, Woods’ iron play has been spectacularly precise. That explains, in part, why he currently ranks 176th on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy, hitting just 55 percent of fairways this season, but ranks sixth in strokes gained from the tee to the green.
But Woods, whose last major championship was 10 years ago, is not buoyed on the eve of this championship just by the firm condition of the grass underfoot. He underscored how being older, and more experienced, may be a plus.
And these did not appear to be idle, wishful considerations suddenly wandering from Woods’ brain to his unusually unwary lips. He is 42 years old now and weakened by wear and tear. He has had time to weigh where golf longevity might be an advantage.
He mentioned that a 59-yearold Tom Watson lost in a playoff at the 2009 British Open and Greg Norman, then 53, held the third-round lead before faltering.
“It certainly can be done,” Woods said, adding: “Even if I get a little bit older, I can still chase some wood or long club down there and hit the ball the same distance.
“And then creativity plays such an important role. It’s about understanding how to play in these conditions.”
Today will mark the 20th appearance of Woods at the British Open. He has finished in the top three five times and in the top 10 nine times. Nearly half of his 72 previous rounds have been under par, and almost 75 percent of those scores have been in the 60s.
Maybe firm fairways will only send Woods’ tee shots farther afield this weekend. That could be a problem. From the rough, his approach shots have landed, on average, more than 45 feet from the hole, which puts him in a tie for 114th place in that category.
Perhaps his new putter will become yet another piece of his once impenetrable arsenal that betrays him. It is possible that by Sunday, or by Friday, Woods will just look lost rather than rediscovered.
It will be time to yawn or roll your eyes.
But earlier this week, Woods had hope anew. Besieged by hundreds of fans as he left the Carnoustie grounds, with many of those dashing in his wake calling out his name, it was clear they still had hope too.