Tiger Woods spoke on his Open qualifications
Tiger Woods is back on the golf course. He’s officially returned and competed in two events. He has said in the past that, health willing, he wants to become a semi-regular competitor again after his ankle surgery. That includes the Majors, but he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get into one of them.
Majors have tons of ways to qualify, but a lot of them won’t apply to Woods. For the Open Championship, Woods’ status is unclear. He won it in 2019 and that qualified him automatically for the next five tournaments. Unfortunately, that time period ended last year.
When asked about his status for the tournament that’s still seven months away, Woods said via The Daily Mail:
“That, I do not know. I don’t know what’s happened or what Jack [Nicklaus], what happened over his career, or Tom [Watson] or anybody else. But as of right now, no, I’m not in, and whether or not I have to formally ask them or they invite me, or you give me an exemption or I have to go qualify, you know, who knows.”
Jack Nicklaus was given eight special exemptions to the Major, while Arnold Palmer got five. Phil Mickelson was also given one in 2021. This is likely what will have to happen again for Woods, which wouldn’t be a shock.
Tiger Woods can still get into the Majors
Tiger Woods’ return to golf has been all the rage. Despite his health issues and his advancing age, he’s still a golfer more than capable of putting together a good weekend.
For any Major championship, a good weekend from Tiger Woods is great for ratings. If he’s not playing but is healthy enough to do so, that would be disappointing for many fans, so it’s unlikely that he will not make it.
However, it would be the first time he wouldn’t have automatically qualified for a Major tournament since 1996 when he was still an amateur. With an automatic bid unlikely, that impressive streak will likely come to an end in 2024.
Tiger Woods has stated that he is targeting up to 12 tournaments in 2024. Those presumably do include the Majors, since he noted that the “biggest” events happen monthly, via Daily Mail:
“I think the best scenario would be maybe a tournament a month. I think that’s realistic. You would have to start maybe with the Genesis, then something in March, maybe The Players. But we have a setup right now where the biggest events are one per month, so it sets itself up for that. Now, I need to get myself ready for all of that, I think this week is a big step in that direction.”
Each Major is in a different month, so it’s very likely that Woods plans on playing them. The only question is whether or not he’ll land a spot in them.
The good news is that he’s healthy enough to play in them and on the PGA Tour, which was far from the case last time around.
