Tiger Woods waves to the crowd on the 18th green during the final round of the 2024 Masters. | Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Even though he struggled over the weekend at Augusta National, Tiger Woods said he had a “good week” at the 2024 Masters.
The scorecard certainly did not show many positives, especially his final 36 holes. But Tiger Woods called his 26th appearance at The Masters a “good week,” despite finishing in solo 60th at 16-over par.
He set an Augusta National record by making a 24th consecutive cut, and he completed 72 holes in a major championship for the first time in two years. Flashes of brilliance emerged at times, but so did signs of his age and lingering pain.
Regardless, Woods is looking ahead to the next major in mid-May: the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
“I just [need to] keep lifting, keep the motor going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, and keep progressing,” Woods said on what he has to do to prepare for Valhalla.
“Hopefully, the practice sessions will keep getting longer.”
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Tiger Woods hits his tee shot on the 18th hole during the final round of the 2024 Masters.
Woods won the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla in an epic playoff over Bob May. Then, in 2014, the last time this course hosted the PGA, Woods missed the cut.
“I’m going to do my homework going forward at Valhalla, Pinehurst and Troon, but that’s the game plan,” Woods added.
“I heard there are some changes at the next couple of sites. So I have to get up there early and check them out.”
A month after the world’s best players descend upon Kentucky, the U.S. Open will take place at Pinehurst No. 2 in mid-June. The North Carolina course also hosted the national championship in 1999, 2005, and 2014.
Woods did not compete in the 2014 U.S. Open, but in 1999 and 2005, he tied for third and finished solo second, respectively.
Then, The Open Championship returns to Royal Troon in Scotland in July. Woods hopes to play there too, which would correlate with his hypothetical plan that he laid out at the Hero World Challenge in December.
At that point, Woods said he hoped to play “once per month.” Now that the majors align accordingly, and now that he has completed 72 holes on one of the toughest terrains in all of golf, this looks more and more like a possibility.
As for his appearance at this year’s Masters, Woods said that the gale-force winds became the biggest challenge this week, not his ailments.
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Tiger Woods and playing partner Neal Shipley during the final round of the 2024 Masters.
“The wind and what it was doing out here to the golf shots and the balls and putting, how difficult the course was playing, [that was the biggest challenge],” Woods said.
“It doesn’t take much to get out of position here. Unfortunately, I got out of position a lot [on Saturday] and a couple of times [on Sunday].”
Woods carded the worst round of his Masters career on Saturday, a 10-over 82.
Then, for Sunday’s final round, Woods finished with a 5-over 77, which included him taking the ‘worst ride in golf’ on the 5th hole. He hit his tee shot into the trees, could not take relief, and therefore had to re-tee. That led to a triple bogey, serving as a perfect example of him being out of position.
Still, Woods remained optimistic following the round.
“It was a good week all around,” Woods said.
“I think that coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, [Saturday] didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Then today, the way that Tom [Kim] is playing, I thought I had that in my system. Unfortunately, I didn’t produce it.”
Kim shot a 6-under 66, one of the lowest rounds of the week.
But now Woods—and the golfing world—know that he can complete 72 holes. The question now becomes, does he still have “one more” in him?
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
