LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On Friday night Tiger Woods concluded play at the 2024 PGA Championship. And for the first time in a long time, the golf world’s reaction to his round felt like one collective shrug.

For years now (for decades, really) we’ve hung on Woods’ every shot in these major championship starts. We’ve studied his gait. His ball speed. His putting stroke. In his latest comeback we’ve taken little moments (a flagged long iron, say) and wondered if they could turn to big moments. If he could just string enough of ’em together … could he win again?

But this week was different.

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There were other factors involved, of course. Scottie Scheffler’s arrest loomed over the day’s proceedings, for one thing. And second-round tee time was delayed until mid-afternoon; by the time Woods addressed a half-empty press room, eight shots off the cut line, it was nearly 8 p.m. Asked to describe his week, he sighed and smiled.

“The week? It was a great week being here, being here at Valhalla, and unfortunately my scores did not indicate how the people treated me and how great a week I had,” he said. “Unfortunately, I hit too many shots.”

There was no denying that part. Woods had just birdied the 18th hole to close out a second-round six-over 77; paired with his first-round 72 that left him at 7 over par for the tournament, the same score as club pro sensation Michael Block.

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Tiger Woods has always played to win. Since turning professional in 1996, he has won 82 tournaments, including 15 major championships. Perhaps, more astonishing than the victories and majors is the 142-event made cut streak that lasted over a seven-year period from 1998 to 2005, when he was the most dominant golfer that the game has ever seen.

Woods never said he was the greatest. He didn’t need to. “There is no sense in going to a tournament if you don’t believe that you can win it,” he once said.

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Yet, coming into the PGA Championship at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, Woods was circumspect about his chances of hoisting his fifth Wanamaker Trophy. Asked about the state of his game, he admitted that he was rusty and that the barrage of injuries had taken a toll on his body. “I can still hit shots,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s getting around is more of the difficulty that I face day-to-day and the recovery of pushing myself either in practice or in competition days.”

When the tournament began on Thursday, Woods, who was making his 23rd appearance in the PGA Championship, performed like the part-time player that he has become over the last several years. On his way to a 1-over par 72, the 48-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer hit a smattering of good shots but hardly kept pace in a first round that saw a record 64 players shoot under par scores.

“It’s just the competitive flow,” he said after the round. “It took me probably three holes to get back into competitive flow again and get a feel for hitting the ball out there in competition, adrenaline, temperatures, green speeds. These are all things that normally I adjust to very quickly, and it just took me a few holes to get into it.”

By Friday afternoon, the tournament had been temporarily upstaged by the early morning arrest of Scottie Scheffler, the game’s No. 1 ranked player, for allegedly disobeying a police officer’s order at the entrance to the Valhalla Golf Club. Looking invincible like the Woods of old, Scheffler settled down after the shock of being handcuffed and hauled off to jail to shoot a 5-under par 66 to go into the weekend with a chance to win his second major of the year after taking the Masters last month. As Scheffler went off to answer questions about spending time in a Louisville holding cell, Woods was starting his round and would need a good one to avoid missing just his 15th cut in 93 major appearances.

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Starting his second round two shots off the projected cut of 1 under par, Woods went seven over par in his first four holes to guarantee that he would miss the cut. It’s hard to imagine a worst scenario for a player already battling competitive rust and old age in a game dominated by much younger players. Here he was looking ahead to the next tournament, the next opportunity to show that he could still play at next month’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst, but stuck for five hours on a golf course where he had solidified his legend 24 years earlier in an epic duel with Bob May at the 2000 PGA Championship.

Back then when Woods was in the morning of his career, he turned the Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla Golf Club into a theater with a two-act play and May as his benevolent antagonist. In the final round in 2000, they matched each other shot for shot, creating a drama unprecedented in televised golf history. Then in the three-hole aggregate playoff, Woods survived to win by one stroke. That victory at Valhalla was the third leg of the Tiger Slam, which climaxed when Woods won the 2001 Masters.

Tiger Woods will enter further talks over the US Ryder Cup captaincy in the coming weeks, with the body responsible for hiring Zach Johnson’s successor pledging to give the 15-time major champion more time to make his decision.

Woods cast doubt over his willingness to accept the role earlier this week, citing his involvement in golf’s slow-burning merger negotiations as a barrier to being able to commit to next year’s clash with Europe in New York.

With Luke Donald reappointed in November, the Americans already appear to be losing ground on their rivals, but PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh insisted Woods will not be rushed into making a call.

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Waugh said: ‘We have had conversations for months. We have also had conversations at the Ryder Cup committee, multiple conversations about potential captains and a list of potential captains. You know, Tiger, has been pretty clear.

‘I think we all know that he can be pretty focused, and that’s one of his many superpowers – that ability to tunnel and decide. And he doesn’t do anything that he’s not fully committed to, and we totally respect that. And he’s got a lot on his plate right now. He’s very active, obviously, on the PGA Tour side of things (in their negotiations with the Saudi Arabian backers of the LIV circuit).

‘We want to give him and the committee space to decide how it plays out. You know, everybody sort of has a timeline for this, and I realise it’s a news day and you guys want news, but we have picked captains later than this. We’ve picked captains earlier than this.

‘Luke Donald was named a year out a year ago (ahead of Europe’s crushing victory in Rome in 2023) and they had a pretty good performance, for instance.

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‘We think there’s plenty of time, and putting an artificial date on it is not something we need to do. We have continued the conversations. Obviously want to respect that he’s playing in a major (at the US PGA Championship this week), and we’ll re-engage next week or so.’

Highlighting the ”damage” that has been caused by the hostilities between LIV and the PGA Tour, Waugh said: ‘I’m a very optimistic type and I’m sort of hoping it’s darkest before dawn, if you will, but I think the best thing for the game is a deal. And we’ve been very consistent on that front.

‘I don’t think the game is big enough for two tours like that and I think we are diluting the game in a way that is not healthy. We’ve said that, really, from the beginning. I hope there’s a deal.

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‘I think both sides are not only committed to trying to find a deal but really need a deal, and in my history of deal making, when both sides kind of need something to happen, it generally does.

‘I don’t know the timing. I don’t have any insider information that you all don’t have. But I’m hopeful that there will be a deal over time. And what I would say, I hope there’s urgency because I do think it’s doing damage to the Tour, to the game.

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‘I hope it’s short-term damage, as opposed to permanent damage, and so I hope there’s some urgency in the timing around it because I just don’t think it’s a healthy situation right now.’

Tiger Woods talks with members of the media in a press conference during a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Through nearly three decades in the public eye, Tiger Woods has remained a consummate corporate cipher, dodging troublesome inquiries with an enigmatic ease that would have impressed Louisville’s own Muhammad Ali. No one has ever said less more often, a muscle he’ll work strenuously while facing inquiries about his work on the PGA Tour’s new subcommittee tasked with talking to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

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On Monday, independent director Jimmy Dunne resigned from the Tour’s Policy Board and bemoaned a lack of progress in advancing the Framework Agreement with the PIF that he helped architect, the June 6 announcement of which blindsided players (including Woods) and sparked a bitter governance review during which a faction of player-directors repeatedly demanded accountability from those who worked secretly on the deal unbeknownst to the rest of the board. A day after Dunne’s departure, Woods was asked how optimistic he is about a Saudi deal being reached.

“I think we’re working on negotiations with PIF. It’s ongoing; it’s fluid; it changes day-to-day,” he said, revealing as much as a burka. “Has there been progress? Yes. But it’s an ongoing negotiation, so a lot of work ahead for all of us with this process, and so we’re making steps and it may not be giant steps, but we’re making steps.”

Unlike Rory McIlroy, who has said a deal with PIF is in the best interests of the game, Woods hasn’t detailed what resolution he’d like to see, an astute strategy in that it keeps his counterparts wondering if he wants one at all. He was a vocal critic of LIV and allied with McIlroy to reshape the Tour in an effort to prevent more players leaving, but that was before executives performed an about-face on the Saudis to rival that of Linda Blair in “The Exorcist.” Woods acknowledged that he and McIlroy are not so aligned in their thinking now.

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“It’s good to see it differently, but collectively as a whole we want to see whatever’s best for all the players, the fans, and the state of golf,” he said. “How we get there, that’s to be determined, but the fact that we’re in this together and in this fight together to make golf better is what it’s all about.”

Pressed on what he wants to see happen, Woods blocked: “I’m not going to comment. Except that we’re making steps. That’s all I can say.”

Are you personally open to a deal with the Saudis?

“I’m personally involved in the process.”

Dunne called me Monday evening and described his position on the board as having become “superfluous,” describing a ghostly existence in which he wasn’t a decision-maker and wasn’t consulted by those who are — a predictable result of his role in the Framework Agreement. Woods was asked if he agreed with Dunne’s assessment.

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“No,” he replied. “Jimmy and the amount of work and dedication that he put into the board and to the PGA Tour, it’s been incredible. It was a bit surprising that he resigned yesterday and just how it all came about, but, no, his role and his help, then what he’s been able to do for the PGA Tour has been great.”

It was a commendable effort at sincerity. Woods’ fellow director, Jordan Spieth, was also at pains to push back on a narrative that players now wield too much power, insisting that good governance has now been established. He used the word “balance” or a derivation thereof 11 times in his Tuesday press conference.

Tiger Woods will return to action at next week’s PGA Championship, and the 15-time major champion has already arrived at Valhalla as he bids to win an 83rd PGA Tour title

Tiger Woods has already taken to the range at Valhalla Golf Club, starting his preparation for next week’s U.S. PGA Championship in Kentucky. Woods has been forced to play a part-time schedule in recent years, after suffering career-threatening injuries in a car accident in February 2021.

The 48-year-old – who has a record-equalling 82 PGA Tour titles to his name – has played in just eight competitive events in two years, completing all 72 holes on four occasions. His next start will come at the U.S. PGA Championship next week, an event he has won four times, including at this year’s venue back in 2000.

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And in a bid to ensure he is in perfect shape for the second major championship of the year, Woods took to the Valhalla driving range on Sunday, whilst the majority of his PGA Tour rivals battle it out at the Wells Fargo Championship.

The golfing great has played just twice since the turn of the year, with his first start coming at February’s Genesis Invitational, an event in which he is tournament host. As has been the case of a number of occasions since his comeback in 2022 though, Woods was forced to withdraw partway through the event.

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Having completed his opening 18 holes on day one at Riviera, the tournament host’s week came to an end prematurely on day two after he was forced to withdraw just six holes into round two. His decision to pull out was not down to injury, but through illness, having suffered with influenza.

After two months away Woods’ return came at April’s Masters, where the five-time winner once again wrote himself into the Augusta National history books. The American made a record-breaking 24th consecutive cut at the Masters, passing fellow greats Fred Couples and Gary Player on 23.

Everybody hopes to cover Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship, no matter how he is playing.

But for ESPN Golf Analysts Andy North and Curtis Strange, both two-time U.S. Open champs, they particularly hope for Tiger Woods to play well at a specific time.

Andy North was very direct.

“I think the key is, coverage-wise, we want him Friday afternoon,” he said.

“It keeps my energy level up,” said Strange.

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Whether the golf gods grant North and Strange their wish is dependent on the tee times Tiger Woods receives. In fact, much of a victory is dependent on such seemingly small and fleeting situations.

Professional golf tee times in the first two rounds are most often arranged so that golfers tee off in the morning one day and in the afternoon the next day. It’s done that way to even out conditions for the field as a whole. You get the pristine greens one day. I get them the next.

Those who have won many tournaments are more likely to get the prime slots, 10 or 11 AM tee times in the morning and the 1 or 2 PM tee times in the afternoon. Those are the times golfers want.

Newcomers to the PGA Championship and the Club Professionals are likely to get the very earliest and very latest times, which are least desirable. It’s a pecking order. Players like Woods and, lately, Scottie Scheffler have earned the best times as have Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, those who have won important tournaments or who are popular with fans.

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Regardless of their actual start time, one day it’s morning or “early” and one day it’s afternoon or “late.” The ideal time combination for Tiger Woods is the early/late rota because that gives him more time between rounds one and two to do whatever it is he has to do to his body to recover. Ice baths, massages, and so forth, between rounds. Plus the warm-up routine that he has to go through just to play.

At the recent Masters, Woods got late/early and the bad side of the weather. There his tee time combination meant even without the weather, he faced a hard time with recovery after the first round. The situation was made worse when there was a weather delay causing the first round to finish on Friday. Worse yet, Woods had to start his second round right away.

While the tee times can definitely affect the outcome, there are other circumstances that come into play at any tournament, magnified at a major. One is the player’s feelings about the golf course.

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He likely has a lot of good feelings for the place.

“He’s played well at Valhalla,” North noted. “He’s got some great memories there. He’s got a lot of great shots he can step up on tees and remember hitting. I think that’s really important.”