TROON, Scotland — Tiger Woods is stuck.
In his mind, Woods remains the same fierce competitor with a resolute belief that he’s going to win every time he tees it up.
Then, there’s reality: That Woods is making the transition from competitor to ceremonial golfer — a former great who graces these events to the delight of his fans so they can get one last look or two at him and shower him with affection.
Woods just doesn’t know it yet.
Or refuses to concede to it.
Woods, at age 48 and physically compromised with a fused spine and hardware holding his right leg and foot together, on Friday missed the cut in a major championship for the third consecutive time this year.
He quietly departed Royal Troon at 14-over par, miles to the wrong side of the cut line in the 152nd British Open, and tied for 142nd around 2:30 p.m. ET Friday among the 154 players still competing in the field.
“Well, it wasn’t very good,’’ Woods said of his second-round 6-over-par 77 that followed Thursday’s opening-round 79 — scores that tied his career-high two-round total in a major of 156.
“I just was fighting it pretty much all day. I never really hit it close enough to make birdies and consequently made a lot of bogeys.’’
This is becoming a broken record.
Woods has played 39 rounds of golf since the 2021-22 season and shot just five rounds in the 60s. His last tournament round in the 60s came in February 2023.
In nine of the 10 rounds he played in the four major championships this year, Woods shot over par and has averaged 76. The one exception was an even-par round at the Masters.
There’s no shame in a once-dominant and proud champion losing his fastball.
Here’s the annoying rub to this, though: Woods speaks like a man who refuses to acknowledge what we’re all seeing — that his skills have diminished and he’s no longer able to compete with today’s best players.
More maddening: After every dodgy round like Friday’s, Woods laments that he hasn’t had enough reps to keep himself sharp enough to compete in tournaments. Yet, he stubbornly refuses to add any events to sharpen his game.
Woods, after his round Friday, said he has no plans to play again until December when he’ll play in that father-son event in Florida and then at his own Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. So, he’ll enter next season having taking the little-traveled path as he has the past few years.
Isn’t this the definition of insanity? When you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results?
Woods, whose world ranking has plummeted to 874th and falling — has become a hamster spinning on a wheel.
If he expects the results to improve in 2025 when he’s another year older (49) and another year removed from the last time he was actually in contention at a tournament (2019), the only word that applies here is delusional.
Woods, as prolific a champion as the game has ever seen, has become a golf version of Joe Namath limping around on gimpy knees in his final years with the Jets, or Willie Mays stumbling around in the outfield in a Mets uniform at the end of his career.
As it turns out, Colin Montgomerie, who at the beginning of this week was excoriated for comments he made about Woods, was spot-on about a few things he said.
“I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him,’’ Monty told The Times of London. “There is none of that now. At Pinehurst (where Woods missed the cut at the U.S. Open) he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there, either.’’
Only Woods knows what’s in his head and heart (and he rarely shares any of it with the public), but his two rounds at Troon sure didn’t look very enjoyable for him.
“Obviously, he still feels he can win,’’ Montgomerie said. “We are more realistic.’’
Those words from Montgomerie also ring true.
Woods, with his 82 career wins and 15 major championships, not only no longer appears capable of winning again, he no longer appears capable of even contending.
There was a time when the competitors chasing Woods in his periods of dominance wondered if he was playing a different golf course than they were. Now, you wonder if Woods is playing the same golf course the top competitors are playing.
He’s become a novelty — albeit a cherished one — in the game. And that’s not intended as an insult.
There was nothing wrong with the way Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus turned up at tournaments after their competitive days were over. People wanted to see Palmer and Nicklaus, same as they want to see Woods.
“I’m just happy he’s playing,’’ Xander Schauffele said.
“I’m always pulling for him, as I think the rest of the world of golf is,’’ Patrick Cantlay said Friday after playing alongside Woods and Schauffele the past two rounds. “I’ve seen enough video of him dominating to know what he has.’’
Only thing is, Cantlay should have used the word had.