Tiger Woods: Non-major starts needed to keep peak form in second half of 2019

Tiger Woods suffered a disappointing missed cut at the PGA Championship, having not played at all since winning the Masters. How will he avoid that at the next two majors?

Tiger Woods has been the most watched, most heavily scrutinized golfer in the game for more than 20 years. In fact, he might be one of the single most watched athletes in the entire world. And more often than not, when he makes a decision, it’s had a tendency to pay off.

When he won the Masters this past April, his first green jacket since 2005 and first major since 2008, all was right in his world. His perfect plan for 2019 – play less and be ready for the majors – was coming together better than anybody could have imagined.

Then, he went to Bethpage Black, and promptly missed the cut.

Look, it could have happened to anybody, regardless of the “reps” they had coming in. Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia – all failed to crack the code at Bethpage. But it wasn’t supposed to happen to Tiger. Not with his history here, a shot at a 16th career major, and a possible return to the top of the world ranking.

Fairy tales are great, but they rarely come true. Woods’s week at the PGA Championship felt a whole lot worse than it really was. Heck, he was even sick right before the tournament. But what we should be focused on, what Tiger is definitely focusing on, is how to avoid this in the future.

Woods hasn’t yet announced where he’ll play next. The only obvious starts left on his calendar are the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and the Open Championship at Royal Portrush. If he only plays those two events (surprising, but possible), he’ll have three off weeks leading up to Pebble, and four to Portrush.

Earlier in the year, I expected Woods to play at the Memorial Tournament two weeks before the U.S. Open, as well as possibly adding the 3M Open two weeks before the Open. While it’s clear that he needs to get at least a little bit of work in between the majors, the question now is more “if” than “when”.

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Tiger will probably make the trip to Muirfield Village due to his close relationship with Jack Nicklaus, but everything else is completely up in the air. If he’s feeling good, a trip to the Twin Cities isn’t out of the picture, and I still don’t think he plays the Travelers, Rocket Mortgage or John Deere events. He’s definitely not playing the Irish or Scottish Opens.

It all comes down to two things: his health, and his motivation. Woods admitted at Bethpage that he wanted to go to Quail Hollow for the Wells Fargo Championship, but he simply wasn’t ready to put the work in after his emotional win at Augusta National.

Far be it from me to question the decisions of Tiger Woods, who’s only the greatest golfer of at least this generation, and one of the best ever to walk the links. But if there’s one thing that might be more motivating to him than winning, it might just be losing.

If Woods wants to peak for the majors, consider this past week’s PGA Championship a test run of that plan. Four weeks off didn’t get the job done, and he went home early. Maybe playing the Wells Fargo would have changed things, and maybe it wouldn’t. But it’s tough to win a major when you don’t have a weekend tee time.

Only Tiger Woods can make these calls, but if it’s me, I’m making the Memorial and 3M public and gearing up for those events right away. Put in the work – and the rest – at home and go play your best golf. Number 16 might still be out there, but it won’t come easily, and it definitely won’t come on its own. The only thing more dangerous than a healthy Tiger Woods is a fired-up Tiger Woods. And isn’t that what we all want to see?