It’s been awhile since we discussed the most overrated golfer ever: Tiger Woods. Yes, it is possible for someone to be very good—yet still overrated. We know how the sports mediots latch on to a meal ticket and ride it for as long as they can, suckering fools into following non-relevant news that still generates ad revenue for the desperate. Woods may have been one of the first of these media darlings, in truth.
Nonetheless, he once again was in the news last week for missing the cut at the British Open; if you’re counting at home, he’s made just one cut at the Open Championship since 2014. He’s now missed the cut at the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and the British Open this year. Overall, he’s won just one miraculous major since 2008, and that was the Masters in 2019, which felt like a fluke then—and it was.
Since that victory, he’s missed the cut or withdrawn due to injury from 9 majors out of the 22 contested since April 2019. He was unable to compete in 8 of them due to his myriad health problems, and he’s only made the cut at 5 major events since that Augusta moment. He’s not finished higher than 37th at any major tournament in this decade, dating back to the Masters in 2020. Again, that 2019 win was a fluke, for sure.
Since 2013, Woods has finished in the Top 10 of a major just three times: the 2018 British Open (sixth); the 2018 PGA (second); and the 2019 Masters (first). That stretch all came in consecutive events, so clearly he “recovered” from whatever had been ailing him for years to grab that one last piece of glory, and he’s not getting back to it any time soon. Age and injuries are against him, and other things, too, if you believe that.
Tiger certainly had his day, but that is in the distant past: remember, he was his first 14 majors between 1997 and 2008, and he’s won just one more time since then—he will be 49 years old in December, and as we can attest, the body doesn’t get any younger. There is also a lot of mileage on his mind, considering all the off-the-course issues he has had since Christmas 2009. Obviously, those issues were always there, but … yeah.
We say he’s done; he will play one more “year” on the PGA Tour before he turns 50 and then perhaps plays the Senior tour for appearance fees, etc. He will get paraded out for the big major events when possible to draw crowds. The sports mediots will continue to fawn all over him for headlines, and clueless golf fans will watch every swing of his they can in hope of one last career miracle. But it’s over, and it has been for awhile.
