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Tiger Woods isn’t going to retire anytime soon and he thinks longtime Ryder Cup rival Colin Montgomerie should just shut up.
Okay. well, maybe he didn’t say that exactly. But that’s essentially what the 15-time major winner meant.
Woods spoke about Montgomerie’s suggestion that he hang up the clubs on Wednesday as he gets ready to play in the final major championship of the year, the British Open.
“Well, as a past champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60. Colin’s not,” Woods said. “He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt. So he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.’’
“I’ll play as long as I can play and I feel like I can still win the event,” he continued.
That biting answer came just days after Montgomerie suggested that Woods was no longer enjoying his time on the golf course.
“I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him,” Montgomerie told the Times. “There is none of that now. At Pinehurst 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.”
Credit goes to Montgomerie, however, for being consistent. Two years ago he said that Woods probably should’ve called it quits at St. Andrews.
“That was the time,” he said. “Stand on that bridge, start waving, and everyone goes, ‘So, is that it?’ Yeah, it is. It would have been a glorious way to go. The stands were full, the world’s TV cameras – from all continents – were on him, he’s walking up there on his own, tears were in his eyes, obviously, you can’t beat that walk. I’ve done it myself. When the stands are full, you cannot beat that walk. … I tell you what, that is a special, special arena. It’s a theatre. That was the time for Tiger to say, ‘OK, I bow out.’”
Woods has not finished better than 60th in an event this year. He’s missed the cut in each of his last two major stars. So maybe Montgomerie is onto something?