Following a career-worst 78-78 finish at the 2022 Masters, Tiger Woods on Sunday answered the question everyone in the golf world has been itching to know about the sport’s biggest name: Will he play the historic 150th Open Championship when it returns to the famed St. Andrews in July?
Woods jumped at the chance to answer that question, committing to at least one more major this year by admitting that he’s circled The Open as a venue he’ll absolutely play before 2022 closes. However, Tiger remained noncommittal about the rest of his schedule — including the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in May and the U.S. Open in June — before adding that he’s going to try his hardest to make it to as many events as he can.
“I won’t be playing a full schedule ever again,” Woods told Sky Sports. “It’ll be just the big events. I don’t know if I’ll play [the PGA Championship] at Southern Hills or not. But I am looking forward to St. Andrews. That’s something that’s very near and dear to my heart.
“I’ve won two Opens there. It’s the home of golf. It’s my favorite golf course in the world. So, I will be there for that one. Anything in between that, I don’t know, I will try. There’s no doubt — I will try to get ready for Southern Hills, and we’ll see what this body is able to do.”
This clearly puts in question whether Woods will play in the PGA Championship scheduled for May 19; Tiger won at Southern Hills in 2007. Unmentioned, of course, was the U.S. Open on June 16. Woods has won a combined seven of his 15 major championships across those two events.
Whether Tiger plays between now and The Open in July will ultimately hinge on what his body allows him to do. He battled his way through four grueling rounds at Augusta National this week — his first time competing on the PGA Tour in more than 500 days — and did well to make the weekend cut given the toll his body has taken the last few years between injuries and the ailments sustained by a car crash in February 2021 that caused severe trauma to his leg.
By the end of Masters Sunday, he was clearly walking wounded, and he spent most of the last few days cruising the fairways while using one of his 14 clubs as a cane.
“I don’t feel as good as I’d like to feel,” Woods said Friday, adding earlier in the week that pain and soreness is something moving forward that he’ll always have to accommodate.
“I can swing a golf club. The walking’s not easy, and it’s difficult,” he said. “As I said with all the hard work, my leg, it’s going to be difficult for the rest of my life. That’s just the way it is, but I’m able to do it.”
