With everything he’s been through physically, just lining up at Pinehurst No.2 for the US Open is an achievement for Tiger Woods, but if he wants to compete then there’s a lot his needs to brush up on in his game.
The 15-time Major champion is continuing his plan to play once a month, which is just the Major championships during this stretch of the season.
Woods set a Masters record by making the cut for the 24th consecutive visit to Augusta National, before eventually finishing last of those to make the weekend.
The PGA Championship was more of a struggle as Woods shot 72-77 to miss the cut at Valhalla, and the challenge at Pinehurst looks to be far greater than what turned out to be a birdie fest in Kentucky.
And although there’s not much of a sample size so far, with Woods finishing just seven rounds of golf in 2024 having withdrawn from the Genesis Invitational in February, some of his stats make for grim reading.
As just in actual scoring terms, Woods is a combined +24 for the seven full rounds he’s played so far in 2024.
And when you consider everyone else was filling their boots with birdies at Valhalla and he could not follow suit – that’s a worry if he really wants to contend at Pinehurst this week.
With those 20 birdies it means Woods averages under three per round, which is miles behind Scottie Scheffler‘s PGA Tour leading 5.22 – but then again Scheffler is miles ahead of everyone right now.
But even in terms of the PGA Tour average, which is still 3.77, it’s way off and of the 178 qualifying players only five have averaged fewer than three birdies a round, and only two average worse than Woods’ 2.8.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | 126 holes played |
|---|---|
| Birdies | 20 |
| Pars | 70 |
| Bogeys | 31 |
| Double bogeys | 2 |
| Triple bogeys | 3 |
| Cumulative score | +24 |
In terms of the popular stats used most often on tour – in the Strokes Gained: Total category there’s no surprise to see Scottie Scheffler way out in front as he continues to produce numbers we’ve only really seen before from a prime Tiger Woods himself.
But current Tiger Woods is way off the pace, as his -2.834 number is even worse than the current bottom-placed player in the PGA Tour rankings – with Camillo Villegas propping up the rest on -2.225.
There’s not a lot to smile about at all apart from driving – which…
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