The Open: Tiger Woods bid his St Andrews farewell after missing cut

The Open 2022: Emotional scenes as former number one Tiger Woods is given standing ovation

By Tom English
BBC Scotland at St Andrews

The 150th Open

Venue: St Andrews, Scotland Dates: 14-17 July

Coverage: BBC TV, radio and online, on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport mobile app. Full coverage details.

They were sitting on balconies and hanging out of windows, they were scrunched up behind fences and barriers and 10-deep behind ropes.

The mass of humanity to the right and to the left of the 18th hole was something to see a little after 15:00 BST on Friday.

Veteran observers say they've not experienced an ovation like it since Jack Nicklaus bade farewell to St Andrews in 2005. Now, it was Tiger Woods' turn.

In a heartfelt address later on, he said that he hoped to play in The Open again, but that we'll probably never see him playing at a St Andrews Open. We didn't have that clarity out there on the course as he stood on the tee at 18, though.

Everybody around him searched for emotion on his face, hunting for signs that retirement was nigh and that golf - and sporting - history was playing out in front of their eyes.

As he stood waiting for the 18th green to clear, what was going on in his mind? Did he drift away on a tide of nostalgia and emotion? No. A battler to the last, he was thinking 5-wood or 3-wood. He was thinking of the wind and what it was doing and the moisture on the ground and its likely impact on his ball. He was nine over par and still grinding.

The sentimentality was to come, though. He does have a heart, even if his years as a winning machine suggested at times that he was not of this world.

"As I was walking off the tee, I felt the guys [playing partners Matt Fitzpatrick and Max Homa] stop and I looked around. 'Where the hell is Joey [LaCava, his caddie]?'"

They had all held back so Woods could lead them up 18. Respect. "That's when I started to realise, 'Hey, the next time it comes around here I might not be around'."

'I had a few tears; it's very emotional for me'

The galleries were gripped by what he would do on the Swilcan Bridge, the traditional spot for heroes to say their golfing goodbyes.

Would he stop or plough on? Would he pause and remove his cap and wave as Jack did and as Arnold Palmer did before him, a sure sign that this was the swansong, or would he just keep on walking?

In the end, he did both. He slowed, but didn't stop. He took off his cap and waved but didn't halt on the spot to drink in the acclaim. As a fan behind a barrier said when the great man had walked on: "What does that mean? Is this it or not?"

"As I walked further along the fairway, I saw Rory [McIlroy] right there," said Woods of the Northern Irishman, who was making his down the first hole. "He gave me the tip of the cap. JT [Justin Thomas] did the same. It was pretty cool. The nods I was getting from guys as they were going out and I was coming in, that was pretty neat.

"And then I got closer to the green and the ovation got louder and you could feel the warmth. Felt like the whole tournament was right there. They all appreciated what I've done here for the years I've played. I felt like it just came to a head right there as I was walking to my golf ball."

Reuters

Woods had a chance for birdie on 18 but his putt slipped just past

Woods rarely speaks like this. In his prime he would sooner jump in a lake than give you the slightest glimpse of what was going on inside his head. Visual displays of emotion? Forget it. For so many years the walls were up, but now the walls were coming down.

"I had a few tears," he continued. "I'm not one who gets very teary-eyed very often about anything, but when it comes to the game and the transition… I was lucky enough in 1995 to watch Arnold hit his first tee shot in the second round [of his final Open]. And I could hear Jack playing his last one; I was probably about four holes behind him [10 years later] and could hear the ovations getting louder and louder and louder.

"I felt that as I was coming in. The people knew I wasn't going to make the cut. I put my heart and soul into this event over the years. It's very emotional for me. The ovation I got at 18 is something I'll always remember.

"I've been coming here since 1995 and I think the next [St Andrews Open] comes around in 2030 and I don't know if I will be physically able to play by then. I'm not retiring. I'll be able to play future Opens. But eight years' time... I doubt if I'll be competitive at this level."

Old Course Opens usually come round every five years, so we may well return here in 2027, although nothing has been confirmed

Will Tiger ever come back to St Andrews?

So this was goodbye to St Andrews, where his Open story started.

Golf has thrown up epic tales over many eras, life journeys that are riveting, from Bobby Jones to Ben Hogan and beyond. It's easy to make a case for the peaks and troughs of Woods' tale being the most extraordinary of them all.

A Tiger Slam in 2000-01, a US Open won in 2008 with a torn ACL and two stress fractures of his left tibia, a crashed SUV in 2009 that led to disgrace and divorce, a back surgery in 2014, an 82 at the Phoenix Open in its wake, an 85 at Memorial soon after and, with it, firm predictions of the end.

A second back surgery in September 2015, a third a month later, a fourth 18 months after that. Then, in 2017, the arrest and the brief imprisonment in Florida when police found him asleep and then disorientated behind the wheel of his car with the engine running.

The legend that is Woods is not just based around his major championships, it's centred on the ridiculous improbability of his recovery. To go through all of that and then to win the Masters in 2019 - his 15th major title - was one of sport's most outrageous renaissance songs.

Since then he's had another surgery and another car crash, a serious one that could have cost him everything. He might not move like he did, but every time he puts one foot in front of the other on a golf course it's a reminder that he's a walking miracle.

"Life moves on," he said on Friday. "People have no idea what I have to go through and the hours of work on the body every single day to do what I just did. That's what people don't understand. They don't see."

Will he ever come back here, even as a recreational golfer? "I don't know. I'm sure my son will probably want me to. I was fortunate enough to have gotten an honorary membership with the R&A. I have my locker here and because of that I'm able to get a tee time. So that could happen."

The Open carries on without him, but as good as that leaderboard is, there's an unmistakable sense of loss now that Woods has gone.

Whether he's shooting 68 or 78, in the lifetimes of most - if not all - on the Old Course, there's never been a show like a Tiger show.

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