Far more notable than an untypical Tiger Woods battle to make the cut at the Memorial Tournament was the suddenly pessimistic outlook provided by the 15-times major winner regarding his fitness. Woods had looked physically out of sorts during a second round of 76 at an event where he had won fives times and never failed to survive for the weekend in 17 previous visits. This time, he spent day two hovering around the cut line at three over par.
“Ageing is not fun,” said Woods. “Early on in my career I thought it was fantastic because I was getting better and better and better and now I’m just trying to hold on.”
These comments will inevitably reverberate throughout the world of golf. This marked Woods’s first event in five months, due in large part to the PGA Tour’s coronavirus suspension. He had missed earlier tournaments in Florida owing to lingering back problems. It seems any assertions Woods, who won the Masters last April, would emerge from cold storage with his body suitably repaired were wide of the mark.
“I wasn’t quite moving as well as I’d like and couldn’t quite turn back and couldn’t quite clear,” said Woods of his plus-four Friday. “It was a bit of a struggle.”
Woods conceded that back stiffness frequently emerges during pre-round warm-ups. “It’s going to happen more times than not,” added the 44-year-old. “The last four or five years have been difficult as I’ve gone through procedures and have tried to come back.
“I don’t have the same type of stamina as I used to have, that’s for sure, when I was training hard and running and all that stuff. Granted, I’m a lot older now, so things change, they evolve. You try to suck it up as best you can and get through it.”
Woods’s schedule around and performance in the three majors due to be held in the remainder of 2020 suddenly became a subject of even deeper fascination.
Rory McIlroy, who played in the company of Woods in Ohio, explained he saw his one-time idol “sort of quit on” a couple of tee shots. The world No 1 said Woods “wasn’t quite moving as well” but insisted it would be uncharacteristic for this to be raised as justification for poor play. “You can tell, he might make a bit of a grimace after a shot or something,” McIlroy said. “But no, he wouldn’t just flat-out say or make excuses. He’s never been one to make excuses so he’s never going to do that.”
Tony Finau and Ryan Palmer share the halfway lead at nine under par. Jon Rahm, who could topple McIlroy at the top of the world rankings with victory, is just one adrift. At two under, McIlroy trails by seven.