Getty Tiger Woods may find himself in a playoff at the 2018 PGA Championship.
Tiger Woods will have a few weeks off before playing his next tournament at The PGA Championship on August 9-12 in St. Louis, Missouri. Woods came the closest we have seen in recent memory to winning a major at the 2018 British Open. Woods trailed off after a solid start in the final round to keep him a few strokes back from the leaders.
According to Woods’ website, The PGA Championship is the only upcoming tournament Woods has committed to at this point. The Open Championship marked Woods’ third tournament in the past five weeks. Woods also played in the U.S. Open and The National. Woods believed he had a chance to win The British Open, and remarked about his progress heading into the final round of the tournament.
“It’s been a few years since I’ve felt like this, in a major,” Woods explained to USA Today. “I played well today. I really did. I hit a lot of good shots. I really didn’t feel like I really made a bad swing until 18. I really felt like I had control of the golf ball today. And on top of that, I made some longer putts, which was nice…I’ve shown that I’ve been there close enough with a chance to win this year. Given what happened the last few years, I didn’t know if that would ever happen again. But here I am with a chance coming Sunday in a major championship. It’s going to be fun.”
Since March, Woods has had four top 10 finishes, and finished T-11 in THE PLAYERS Championship. Additionally, Woods finished 12th at The Honda Classic. Woods may not have won the British Open, but he managed to create a lot of buzz on Sunday just by being in contention.
Despite showing flashes of his former self in 2018, Woods is still looking to end a drought. He won his last tournament in 2013, but you have to look back to 2008 for Woods’ last major win. Woods will look to end his five year win-less streak in Missouri. Fellow golfer Pat Perez believes Woods will break the streak soon.
“I think he’ll win again and I think he’ll win majors,” Perez told USA Today. “In a 10-year span, you can add up great, great players combined who didn’t do what Tiger did. I want to see him do it again. He’s elevated the entire golf world. There’s nobody we’re going to see like that again. We have great young kids, great players, nice kids. But he was another level of great. Someone might catch fire for a stretch. This guy did it day after day, week after week, year after year.”
Woods entered the British Open ranked No. 71, but will likely move up the world rankings after his impressive play in the tournament. The challenge for Woods is he is constantly compared to his past rather than the player who has recovered from multiple back surgeries to be able to compete against top golfers in major tournaments.