Tiger Woods fell to another missed cut in a Major, his third in a row, at The Open where questions immediately turned to 'what next?'
The 15-time Major winner has played just five tournaments this year in seven months, having stated last year that he hoped to compete in one each month. While admitting he is getting better physically, he insists he's going to take more time away to continue working on his fitness in the hopes of returning to action stronger next year.
Woods' next start won't come for another four-and-a-half months in The Bahamas at his Hero World Challenge event that he hosts, which is a limited-field relaxed affair.
He'll use it as a tune-up for the 'fifth' Major at the PNC Championship later that month where he and son Charlie will look to finally win the event after four previous close calls.
"No, I'm not going to play until then," Woods said of the Hero World Challenge and his plans.
"I'm going to just keep getting physically better and keep working on it. Hopefully just come back for what is it, our fifth Major, the Father/Son, so looking forward to it."
Team Woods's best finish in the PNC Championship was a 2nd-place in 2021, where they ended two strokes shy of the victorious Team Daly. They finished T5th last year where Bernhard Langer won the trophy with his son Jason.
Woods shot 14-over-par for two days at Royal Troon to miss the cut by at least seven strokes.
"I'd like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the Major championships this year," he said.
"I got a lot of time off to get better, to be better physically, which has been the case all year. I've gotten better, even though my results really haven't shown it, but physically I've gotten better, which is great.
"I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again."
