Tiger Woods, when asked what he would tell someone who advised him to quit, said he feels he can still win.
He said that belief hasn’t wavered in the past few injury-filled years.
And then, with six sentences and a smirk on his face, Woods dunked on Colin Montgomerie.
If you like your Open Championship weeks spicy, Woods brought a touch of hot sauce to the proceedings Tuesday morning. Talking in his pre-tournament press conference at Royal Troon, the 15-time major winner said he’ll continue to play events, despite injuries stemming from a 2021 car crash and lackluster play in tournaments since then — and he seemingly had an answer ready in response to comments from Montgomerie, who last week suggested Woods should retire.
About three minutes into his media session, Woods had these exchanges, started by reporters (in italics):
“Always a lot of talk about your future in the game. Hypothetically, if someone ever did advise you to quit, what would you say to them in response, and how would you explain why you keep putting yourself through the pain to play?”
“I’ll play as long as I can play,” Woods said, “and I feel like I can still win the event.”
“And has that belief wavered at all in the last two years, that you can still win?”
“No,” Woods said.
“Tiger, just to almost follow up on that, you’ve given so much to this game, you’ve given so much to this championship. But you know there was comments last week from Colin Montgomerie who said, why is he here, he should retire, there’s no point to this. Do you feel that’s a bit hurtful and you’ve earned the right to you make the decision when you decide?”
“Well, as a past champion,” Woods said. “I’m exempt until I’m 60. 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.”
‘What the hell is he doing?’: Colin Montgomerie calls on Tiger Woods to retire
Here, there was laughter in the background, and Woods grinned. There was one more question.
“You feel that you’ve earned that, you deserve that?”
“So when I get to his age, I get to still make that decision, where he doesn’t.”
The back and forth came in response to an interview with Montgomerie published last Friday by The Times. For clarity, the complete mention of Woods’ future is below (and the article can be read in full here):
Knowing when time is up is hard to gauge. Tiger Woods, now morphing into his own tribute act, is a case in point, and Montgomerie would rather remember the man who beat him into another second place by five strokes at the 2005 Open at St Andrews.
I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him. There is none of that now. At Pinehurst he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there either.”
Woods, 48, has long said he will call it a day when he is no longer competitive, to which Montgomerie says: “Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there. 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.”
This is not said with any sort of glee, but a sorrow that a new generation may be seeing him tarnish his legacy. “These guys only know Tiger Woods missing the cut and he’s better than that, the best we’ve ever seen.”
In the days since the story was written, various outlets, including this one, picked up on it — and Montgomerie seemingly had seen the articles and heard Woods’ thoughts. Shortly after the Tuesday press conference, he tweeted this:
Tiger Woods makes somber admission after U.S. Open missed cut
“If Golf Writers want my thoughts on Tiger please ask me direct, rather than taking a quote from an interview out of context. Wishing Tiger an enjoyable and successful week.”
At the U.S. Open, after missing the cut, Woods himself had suggested his play may be nearing some sort of end. He had been asked if this year’s edition would be his final Open — to which he said: “As far as my last Open Championship or U.S. Open Championship, I don’t know what that is. It may or may not be.”
Later in Woods’ press conference on Tuesday, there was one more question regarding the future. A reporter asked whether links play would present the “best opportunity going forward whether it’s this week or next year into the future to win again or to be competitive just because of the style and maybe it doesn’t require some things that are harder for you now.”
“I think the older you get,” Woods said, “the less you can carry the golf ball. But over here, you can run the golf ball 100 yards if you get the right wind and the right trajectory.
“It negates somewhat of the high launch conditions that most of the times you see on the Tour that nowadays that populate the world. Here it’s a little bit different. You can play on the ground. You can burn it on the ground with a 1-iron, 2-iron, 3-wood, whatever, even drivers, and just flight it and get a bunch of run.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why you see older champions up there on the board because they’re not forced to have to carry the ball 320 yards any more.”
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