Tiger Woods missing US Open a reminder that a true great is slipping further from view

USGA announced Woods had withdrawn from next month’s US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, the season’s third major coming too soon as the American continues his recovery from recent surgery

Tiger Woods will miss the US Open as he continues his recovery from surgery. AP

While the news was not surprising, it provided another reminder that opportunities to witness a true great at the pinnacle of his profession are swiftly slipping from view.

On Monday, the USGA announced Tiger Woods had withdrawn from next month’s US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, the season’s third major coming too soon as the American continues his recovery from recent surgery.

Woods, a three-time tournament winner, underwent a “subtalar fusion procedure” immediately following last month’s Masters, the 15-time major champion requiring an operation to treat post-traumatic arthritis in his ankle. The issue dates to the severe leg injuries Woods sustained in a serious car crash in February 2021.

At Augusta, Woods’ physical problems were laid bare. A video circulated on social media showing the five-time champion struggling to walk on the course. Understandably, and having already made his 23rd Masters cut, Woods withdrew before the weather-delayed third round was complete. He confirmed in a statement he had "reaggravated" his plantar fasciitis – a tissue inflammation causing pain in the heel.

Woods' inability to make the US Open, scheduled to begin on June 12, had therefore been expected. Winner of the tournament in 2000, 2002 and 2008, he skipped the event last year – he hasn’t competed since 2020, when he missed the cut at Winged Foot – in what marked his only major miss in 2022.

However, it seems certain now he will be one for four this season. Woods, 47, sat out last week’s US PGA Championship, and the Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in England in July looks a longshot, too.

Woods, as granted it feels like he does almost everywhere he has played professionally, has history with the Hoylake course: he captured his third Claret Jug there in 2006.

Yet his US Open omission most probably paves the way for Woods to sit out Liverpool as well. And then what of his 2023 season? The PNC Championship, where he plays alongside son Charlie at the year-end, pro-and-family-member tournament, could well form his next objective.

Battling his body evermore, Woods has played five competitive events in the past 13 months, missing the cut in two and withdrawing from another.

In fact, his recent major record underlines the physical rigours the former world No 1, now ranked 1,025th, has been through. In 10 major appearances since the genuinely momentous Masters victory in 2019, Woods has missed the cut four times and withdrawn mid-tournament - last year's PGA Championship, Augusta this year - twice.

Next month’s US Open represents Woods final exemption for the event having won it in 2008, but no doubt the USGA will continue to invite arguably the game’s greatest player as long as he believes he can compete.

Which, admittedly given Woods’ undeniable stoicism or stubbornness, could still have a few more iterations to run yet.