There’s very little Tiger Woods hasn’t achieved in his career, but there is one glaring omission from his incredible resume – he has yet to make an appearance in the Olympics, and he’s not at Paris 2024, either. But why is that? Part of it is down to timing, but much of it is down to bad luck…
Golf only returned to the Olympics schedule in 2016 after a 112-year hiatus. Had it been part of the Games in previous editions, there is no doubt whatsoever that Woods would have played a big part for Team USA given his dominance in the earlier part of his career.
That’s because the qualifying criteria is based on the Official World Golf Ranking and, incredibly, between May 1997 and February 2011, Woods was never lower than third.
That would have made him a shoo-in for the Olympics had golf been held in the four editions the period encompassed. He’d have almost certainly made it to the 2012 Beijing Olympics, too, had golf been held there, given he spent months leading to the Games within the world’s top four.
Tiger Woods would have been a shoo-in for an Olympics place at his peak, but golf didn’t return to the schedule until eight years ago
(Image credit: Getty Images)
While golf didn’t return to the Olympics until four years later, in Rio de Janeiro, by then, injuries had begun to take their toll on his ranking. In particular, back surgery that sidelined him for almost of 2016 scuppered arguably his best chance of making an appearance.
There has certainly been no lack of desire on Woods’ part to appear at an Olympics, although before the 2019 US Open, he admitted age was catching up with him.
Speaking about making it to the 2020 games in Tokyo, he said: “Olympic gold medal would be a hell of a feat. First I need to qualify. It would be exciting if I got a chance to represent the United States in the Olympic Games.
“I don’t know how many more times I get a run at it. Next time I’ll be 48. So it’s… I don’t have that many chances of playing for the United States in the Olympics. So it will certainly be an honor if I were able to represent the United States.”
Woods certainly appeared primed for an appearance as the new decade began. In January 2020. Helped by his 15th Major win at The Masters the previous April, Woods was seventh in the world needing to overtake one of…
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