Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy to play Celebration of Champions

Tiger Woods will start Open Championship week on Monday.

Alongside Rory McIlroy.

Woods, who completed the career Grand Slam with his win on the Old Course in 2000 and won at the Home of Golf again in 2005, will play in the Celebration of Champions as the 150^th Open begins at St. Andrews.

Woods, who also won the Claret Jug in 2006 at Hoylake, will be grouped with 2014 Open champ Rory McIlroy, 2018 Women’s British Open champion Georgia Hall and the Merry Mex, Lee Trevino, who won the Open in 1971 and 1972.

“This is going to be a special week of golf and having many of the sport’s great champions and future stars play in this event is a great way to mark this historic championship,” Woods said in a statement. “St. Andrews has such a unique atmosphere, and I’m looking forward to playing in front of the fans again and on a course that holds fantastic memories for me.”

The Celebration of Champions will have the golfers play four holes – the first, second, 17^th and 18^th. Woods played in the event in 2005, his teammates that year being Tom Weiskopf, Mark O’Meara and Nick Price. He also played in 2010.

Woods is still recovering from a horrific single-car accident north of Los Angeles in February 2021 that nearly took his life and nearly led to amputation of his right leg. He has played twice this year – making the cut in the Masters and the PGA Championship. He did withdraw from the PGA Championship following the third round in which he was visibly laboring because of his injuries.

Woods decided against playing the U.S. Open at The Country Club near Boston to allow more time to heal.

Defending champion Collin Morikawa will hit the first tee shot Monday and play with AIG Women’s Open champion Anna Nordqvist, Jess Baker, who won the Women’s Amateur Championship at Hunstanton last month, and Asia-Pacific Amateur champion and 2021 Mark McCormack Medal winner Keita Nakajima.

The full draw for the Celebration of Champions will be announced Monday morning. The best two scores out of four on each hole from each team will count. The team with the lowest total over the four holes will win.

Hall already said she’s won.

“It is an absolute thrill to play alongside Tiger, Rory and Lee,” she said. “I think it’s fantastic that the R&A has invited champions from all levels of the sport and I’m sure that Jess and Keita will be massively excited by the prospect of teeing it up with Collin and Anna at St. Andrews.”