Vintage Tiger Woods Is Gone Forever After British Open, But What About Tiger Woods, Period?

Not long ago, Tiger Woods was barely 21 when he shocked the senses by blowing away the competition at Augusta National to win the Masters.

Wow.

Actually, that really was long ago.

Woods is now nearly 47, and on Friday, he spent a second consecutive outing in St. Andrews, Scotland blowing away hopes he’ll ever scare his golfing peers the way he did that afternoon in April 1997.

That was followed by more than a decade of Woods evolving into somebody who baseball legend Hank Aaron once told me was the most dominant athlete in the history of professional sports.

First things first, though.

“I don’t know if this will be Tiger’s last one here,” Scottie Scheffler told reporters on Friday at St. Andrews, where Scheffler continued to resemble the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer that he was when he entered the British Open. He finished the afternoon tied for sixth at 8 under. In contrast, he suggested this could be the Old Course farewell for Woods as a competitor after Tiger missed the cut with a 3-over 75 in the second round to finish 9 over following 36 holes.

Scheffler added, “(Woods) may have spoken about it a bit, but he’s a pretty resilient guy and he loves to compete. We’ll see what he has in store for us the next few years. Any time you can see that guy out on the golf course, especially The Old Course, it’s really special.”

To translate . . .

Goodbye, vintage Tiger.

Which brings us to the question of the century for the golfing universe and for much of the solar system in general: Where does this non-vintage Tiger go from here?

The answer: Personal turmoil.

Forbes estimates Woods’ net worth is at least $1 billion. So, if he never chips, putts or drives again in search of a 16th major championship, he won’t head for a soup line anytime soon. He has the charisma (and the money) to do whatever, but what keeps this owner of a record-tying 82 PGA tour victories swinging in the spotlight is that he is running on the adrenaline of somebody operating as a golfing miracle.

That’s admirable, but is that advisable? No. Woods still hasn’t recovered from nearly having his right leg amputated after his automobile crash of 16 months ago. Before that, he had five surgeries each for his back and his knees, and those issues surrounded his other aches and pains.

If you’re Woods, why suffer from now through whenever both physically and on the leaderboard?

You shouldn’t.

You also should shouldn’t ignore those fairly recent flukes around north Georgia.

Despite all of those ailments contributing to no Tiger victories on the PGA tour during the previous five years, Woods won the 2018 Tour Championship in Atlanta. The following year, he grabbed his fifth green jacket in Augusta.

Reality came during this year’s Masters, where Woods did nothing worth mentioning. The next month, he withdrew from the PGA Championship after three rounds of awfulness. He ignored his heart in June to skip the US Open — which he regularly watched as a youth with his late father, golf coach and best friend Earl — to put his emphasis on the Old Course.

Speaking of old, that’s the way Tiger looked.

So, where does he go from here?

“I have nothing, nothing planned. Zero,” Woods told reporters in St. Andrews after his teary eyes dried following what likely was his last walk between thousands of cheering fans as he headed to the 18th green of a place that the R&A’s rotation won’t grace with another Open until 2027.

At that time, Woods will sit five months away from his 52nd birthday, but until then, he’s got the present.

Like when will Tiger play again?

“Maybe something next year. I don’t know,” Woods told reporters. “But nothing in the near future. This is it. I was just hoping to play this one event this year. And I was lucky enough, again, [to get] three events in, and they’re all majors. So I feel very fortunate to have had things happen this way [after] the struggles I’ve been through to get to this point.”

We hear you, Tiger.

Um . . .

We hear you.