Tiger Woods hints it could be his last Open hurrah at St Andrews

Two of the 15-time major winner’s three Claret Jugs have been won on the Old Course, in 2000 and 2005, but after this year’s 150th Championship the event will not return for at least another five years.

By then Woods will be five months away from his 52nd birthday: the oldest modern-day winner of the event was the 44-year-old Roberto De Vicenzo in 1967, while Phil Mickelson, a month short of his 51st birthday, became the oldest major champion with last year’s US PGA Championship victory. Back problems have plagued the latter years of Woods’ career while the February 2021 car crash in which he almost lost a leg left him wondering whether he would ever play at the highest level again.

Having regained his fitness he targeted St Andrews as the one event he had to play in but, while he will fulfil that mission this week when he goes out with newly-crowned US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick of Sheffield and fellow American Max Homa on Thursday, he does not know whether he will ever return.

“I’m not retiring,” the 46-year-old Woods told Sky Sports, before going on to explain in his pre-tournament press conference he was not sure whether he would play an Open on the Old Course again.

“Who knows? I don’t know, if it is that long (to 2027), whether I will be able to physically compete at this level by then.

“It’s also one of the reasons why I wanted to play in this championship. I don’t know what my career is going to be like.

“I don’t know how many Open Championships I have left here at St Andrews but I wanted this one. It started here for me in ‘95 and if it ends here in ‘22, it does. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

“If I get the chance to play one more, it would be great, but there’s no guarantee.

“My body has been through a lot, and at 46 you don’t quite heal as well as you do at 26 so it is what it is.”

McIlroy mission: Page 25