Tiger Woods is back in action this week for the final time in 2024 as he takes his skills to Royal Troon for The Open.
Woods is looking to finally make the cut in a major this year at the last attempt and at least give him some belief that 2025 can be a better year.
The 15-time major winner has not quite delivered since returning from his near career-ending injuries and there have even been calls for him to retire.
Indeed, that was the call from Colin Montgomerie just this week, who suggested Woods is past his best now.
“I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him. There is none of that now. At Pinehurst he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there either,” Montgomerie said.
“Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there. There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go. Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.
“These guys [current tour players] only know Tiger Woods missing the cut and he’s better than that, the best we’ve ever seen.”
However, Woods is continuing for now and looking at his practice round at Troon today, things might be looking up, on one hole at least.
Tiger Woods fires a dart as he takes to Royal Troon ahead of The Open
As we all know, the eighth hole at Royal Troon is iconic for being such a short par three.
Known as the Postage Stamp, it’s one of the smallest par threes on the tour and can cause even the best golfers in the world all manner of problems.
However, Woods has made light work of it by the looks of things in his first practice round.
Shared by golf journalist Bob Harig on X, Woods has fired in a superb tee shot on the Postage Stamp to leave himself what is basically a gimme in match play.
Of course, just a single shot is not usually something to write home about, especially in a practice round.
But Tiger Woods is still one of the biggest names in sport and given his problems, if he’s doing things like this then people will cling onto hope he might well turn up.
Fingers crossed, then, that this is a sign of things to come for Tiger.
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