TROON, Scotland — said turning down an opportunity to captain next year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team was a difficult one, but one he had to make because of myriad other commitments.
a two-time Ryder Cup player, will when it faces the European team at the Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, New York, on Sept. 26-28, 2025.
“Well, the decision was very difficult for me to make,” Woods said Tuesday at Royal Troon Golf Club as he prepares for the Open Championship. “My time has been so loaded with the tour and everything and what we’re trying to accomplish. I’m on so many different subcommittees that it just takes so much time in the day, and I’m always on calls.”
Woods, 48, is vice chairman of the board of directors of PGA Tour Enterprises and a member of its transaction committee, which is handling day-to-day negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund about a potential multibillion-dollar investment. Woods is a player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board as well.
Woods and also are the front men for TGL presented by SoFi, a tech-infused golf league that is scheduled to begin its inaugural season on Jan. 7.
“I just didn’t feel like I could do the job properly,” Woods said. “I couldn’t devote the time. I barely had enough time to do what I’m doing right now, and add in the TGL starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup. You add all that together and then with our negotiations with the PIF, all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there’s only so many hours in the day.
“I just didn’t feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players in Team USA justice if I was the captain with everything that I have to do.”
Woods said he hasn’t talked to Bradley about being one of his vice-captains.
“I think Keegan is going to be a great leader,” Woods said. “He’s very passionate about what he does. He’s very passionate about the event. I think that this is going to be probably a turnover year for us for the captaincies, whether it’s the captain itself and his vice captains. I think this is the natural progression, one we’ve been looking forward to, and I think it’s that year.”
Woods hasn’t ruled out becoming a Ryder Cup captain in the future. The 2027 event will be played at the Golf Course at Adare Manor in Ireland, which is owned by his friend, JP McManus.
It will be Woods’ first tournament at Royal Troon since he tied for ninth at the 2004 Open Championship. He missed the 2016 tournament while recovering from a back injury.
Woods will play the first two rounds with PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. They’ll tee off in the first round at 9:37 a.m. ET Thursday; they start the second round at 4:25 a.m. ET Friday.
The 15-time major champion has finished only nine competitive rounds on tour this season. He was forced to pull out of February’s Genesis Invitational after one round because of illness. At the Masters, he set a tournament record with his 24th consecutive made cut and finished 60th. He missed the cut in his past two starts at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open.
“I’ve been training a lot better,” Woods said. “We’ve been busting it pretty hard in the gym, which has been good. Body’s been feeling better to be able to do such things, and it translates [to] being able to hit the ball better. Can’t quite stay out there during a practice session as long as I’d like, but I’m able to do some things that I haven’t done all year, which is nice.”
When Woods was asked how long he’ll keep playing, he said: “I’ll play as long as I can play, and I feel like I can still win the event.”
Earlier this week, Scottish golfer told The Times of London that it was time for Woods to retire from competitive golf.
“Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there,” Montgomerie said. “There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go. Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.”
Woods was asked about Montgomerie’s remarks Tuesday. Woods noted that as a three-time winner of the Claret Jug, he is eligible to play in The Open until he is 60. Montgomerie was a five-time runner-up in the majors but never won one of the big four.
“Well, as a past champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60,” Woods said. “Colin’s not. He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So, he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.”
Tiger Woods 14 over at Open, misses another major cut
TROON, Scotland — Tiger Woods‘ major championship season ended with another missed cut in the 152nd Open Championship on Friday, and golf fans won’t see him again on the PGA Tour this season.
Woods carded a 6-over 77 in the second round at Royal Troon Golf Club, leaving him with a 36-hole total of 14-over 156. The cut line was 6 over.
Woods has now missed the cut or withdrawn in six of his past seven majors.
It was Woods’ worst score to par after the first two rounds in 23 starts at The Open; his previous worst was 9 over after 36 holes at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2022.
It was his second-worst score to par after 36 holes in a major — he was 16 over in two rounds at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, during the only other stretch in his career when he has missed the cut in three straight majors.
The fifteen-time major champion was tied for 149th when he walked off the course, ahead of only four of the 153 other golfers competing in the last major of the season.
“Well, it wasn’t very good,” Woods said. “I made a double there at 2 right out of the hopper when I needed to go the other way. Just was fighting it pretty much all day. I never really hit it close enough to make birdies and consequently made a lot of bogeys.”
Woods, 48, said he won’t compete again until the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event he hosts in the Bahamas, Dec. 5-8. He also plans to compete in the PNC Championship — another unofficial event — in Orlando, Florida, with his son, Charlie, Dec. 19-22. Woods was able to compete in each of the four majors this season but didn’t get the results he was hoping for. After setting a Masters record with his 24th consecutive made cut and finishing 60th at Augusta National Golf Club in April, he missed the cut at the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open.
“I loved it,” Woods said. “I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors. Obviously, it tests you mentally, physically, emotionally, and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping that I would find it somehow, just never did.”
Woods competed in just one other PGA Tour event this season, the Genesis Invitational outside Los Angeles in February, and he had to withdraw in the second round there because of illness.
“I’d like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year,” Woods said. “I got a lot of time off to get better, to be better physically, which has been the case all year.
“I’ve gotten better, even though my results really haven’t shown it, but physically I’ve gotten better, which is great. I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again.”
After posting an 8-over 79 in the first round, Woods wasn’t much better Friday. He made a double bogey on the par-4 second after missing a 4-foot bogey putt. After draining a 22-foot birdie on No. 6, Woods picked up another bogey when he missed a 5-footer on No. 9.
After making the turn at 3-over 39, Woods made three more bogeys on Nos. 12, 14 and 17. He missed a 3½-foot par putt on the par-3 14th.
Over two rounds, Woods was 7 over on the par-3s, which ranked next-to-last in the field. He lost 3.77 strokes to the field in putting and 4.19 on approach.
“Yeah, anytime being out with Tiger is great,” said who played with Woods and PGA Championship winner in the first two rounds. “He’s a great competitor and fun to be with. We had a great pairing, especially having my buddy Xander in the group. The three of us had fun.”
Cantlay, who was 1 under after carding a 3-under 68 on Friday, was asked whether he had any sympathy for Woods’ plight since returning to competition after serious injuries he suffered in a car wreck in February 2021.
“I wasn’t out on tour [in the] early 2000s,” Cantlay said. “I’m sure those guys don’t have any sympathy after going through what they went through. I’m always pulling for him, as I think the rest of the world of golf is.”
