Once again, Tiger Woods will be missing another major tournament, this time around, it’s the U.S. Open.
This isn’t an overly surprising decision from Woods, who last competed at the 2023 Masters Tournament in April, shortly after he underwent ankle surgery. He will likely need a couple more months to recover.
Woods withdrew during the third round of this year’s Masters after he was seen hobbling around the greens in obvious pain. He later announced that he had reaggravated his plantar fasciitis, which is among several injuries that he’s been hobbled by in recent years. Those have primarily stemmed from a serious car accident in early 2021. And Woods recently underwent surgery to address post-traumatic arthritis.
It’ll be strange for many not to see Woods playing in his backyard this weekend. The three-time U.S. Open Champ is a California native and grew up about 30 minutes from where the tournament will be played his year.
Many of his fellow golfers talked to the New York Times about Woods not being able to play this weekend.
“Tiger is so transcendent that you could argue that he’s especially missed at any event anywhere. But yeah, it does feel wrong that he’s not here. That’s fair to say if you look at the history of the game,” said Max Homa who is also a California native.
Collin Morikawa, who was also born in L.A., echoed Homa’s sentiment about missing Woods.
“He’s maybe not the sole reason why we got involved in the game,” Morikawa said of Woods, and then he added, “But for me growing up, he’s all I cared about.”
Morikawa continued to say whether Woods is there or not, his presence is still felt around the golf world.
“So, yeah, I think he’s always missed. But he’s always going to impact this game in ways that we can’t even describe, in ways that we don’t even know,” he concluded.
About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.