Another missed cut for older Tiger

So now we know.

Tiger Woods isn’t done, no matter what it looked like on his slog through the only two rounds he’ll play in this British Open. He’s also not in danger of being put in traction anytime soon, no matter how many times he is asked about his surgically repaired back.

He’s just not 23 anymore. And that may be the worst part of being a superstar in any sport.

Woods admitted as much Friday, just before catching his jet home to Florida. If there’s an upside to missing the cut at Royal Portrush, he said, it’s that he’ll get a chance to sleep in his own bed once again.

Meet the new Tiger. Not the same as the old Tiger.

“Things are different,” Woods said. “I’m going to have my hot weeks. I’m going to be there in contention with a chance to win, and I will win tournaments. But there are times when I’m just not going to be there. And that wasn’t the case 20-some-odd years ago.”

Coming to grips with age, of course, is something every athlete struggles with. Woods is no exception, though his rabid fans somehow think he’s exempt from the realities that mere mortals face.

And, really, who can blame them. A magical win at this year’s Masters after going 11 years without winning a major not only added to the Woods legend but left his fans wanting even more.

One look at Woods joylessly plodding his way around Royal Portrush on Friday, though, and it’s apparent that he’s not only human after all — but an aging human at that.

He’ll be 44 by the time he returns to Augusta National to defend his green jacket, with the aches and pains of anyone that age exacerbated by the amount of times he has swung golf clubs in his life and the four back surgeries that resulted from it. The shots that used to come easy don’t always come when he commands them now, and the concentration he needs standing over 5-footers isn’t always there either.

He’s not done, and to suggest so would be silly. His play on the back nine on Sunday at the Masters was textbook precision, and winning the green jacket for a fifth time was almost as remarkable as Jack Nicklaus winning at the age of 46 back in 1986.

He will, as he says, likely win again, and it may not be long before that happens.