Open Championship 2024: Why there is reason to be optimistic about Tiger Woods this week (and reason not to be)

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Go ahead and roll your eyes. Ask us “hmmm, where have I heard THIS one before?” Ponder what, on God’s green earth, could we have possibly seen from Tiger Woods this year that would lead us to believe he has any chance in the 152nd British Open at Royal Troon this week. Tell us “he’s cooked.”

Open Championship 2024: Power rankings for the entire field at Royal Troon

The thing is, all of those things can be and probably are true, but it can also be true that this is, theoretically, Woods’ best shot at one last run. The Open has always been that major for aging players. It’s the major where Tom Watson nearly pulled off the unthinkable in 2009 at Turnberry at the age of 59. It’s the major where our very own Greg Norman, a year earlier, held the 54-hole lead as a 53-year-old at Royal Birkdale. It’s the major Ernie Els captured in 2012 at 42 years young at Royal Lytham & St Annes, having only posted two major top 10s in the 12 years since.

Of course, the key difference between Woods and the three names mentioned above is that his body may simply not allow one last run to occur. And that’s not even factoring the possibility of inclement weather, which could severely affect Woods’ chances of even making the cut. But, like he said back at Augusta National in April, if every thing somehow falls into place, there’s a world in which he could still contend one final time.

Golf Digest senior writer Joel Beall sat in on Woods’ Tuesday presser at Royal Troon and his takeaway was that Woods’ own optimism about his game should be cause for (cautious) optimism from his legion of fans.

“He seemed a little bit more optimistic about his game than he was at Augusta, Valhalla, even Pinehurst,” Beall told us. “One shocking thing this week just from walking around is that he looks noticeably slimmer. Looks like he has been doing a slightly different training regimen than he has in the last year or two that we’ve seen him. Given the history of links golf, that it does require this creativity and experience that maybe the other majors don’t, power takes a little bit of a backseat to precision, I think there is a little bit more optimism that he could do something this week.

“I think he knows this is probably his best shot. But in that same breath, watching him between shots, it’s not the golf that’s the problem. It’s the getting to the next shot that is, and watching him yesterday, he still looked a little hobbled.”

Hey, that’s why fellow GD reporter Alex Myers dubbed Joel “Cold Water Beall.” Just when he gets you thinking Tiger can win again, he makes sure to remind you of something bad. We kid, Joel, we kid.

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