St. Andrews Sets Up Splendidly for Tiger Woods' Return to Major Championship Golf

It's flat, it's friendly to walkers and he's won there twice. With the PNC in the rearview mirror, circle July 14 on your calendar for Woods' return to 'real' golf, writes Morning Read's Dan O'Neill.

The PNC in PNC Championship actually stands for the merger between Pittsburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation. PNC Financial Services Group is the title sponsor, just to be clear.

But if you were watching or reading about the father/son golf championship conducted in Orlando you might think “PNC” stands for “Players Named Charlie.”

No one got more attention over the weekend than Tiger Woods, unless it was his 12-year old son. While most of the sizzle was about golf’s 15-time major champion, his remarkable recovery from a bad car crash and his prospects of returning to competitive golf, quite a bit of the spotlight landed on Charlie and his Tiger-like swing.

In fact, if you're making book, you might be taking action on which Woods will be first to win another major — Tiger or Charlie. And if you talked to his dad, the smart money might be on Charlie.

The only one tapping the brakes on pop’s return to the genuine arena seemed to be pops himself. Most others gushed about Tiger Woods’ ability to launch 300-yard drives and suggested it’s only a matter of time. But realistically, should they be so carried away?

Not to take anything at all from Wood’s determination or achievement in getting to where he is, but that doesn’t put the cart in front of the horse. People might have anticipated that, if he could stand, Woods was going to be able to hit a golf ball. After all, there are numerous examples of determined amputees and disabled people who can hit fine golf shots. They can even play a round, and play in tournaments … where carts are allowed.

Tiger Woods plays the second hole in the 2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews / Golffile | David Lloyd

As we tee off and head down the fairway of 2022, the cart looms as an interesting aspect to the story. As mentioned, Woods seems to be the only one that realizes — regardless of how he handled a golf club over the weekend — his return to 72-hole championships is hardly a given. The two are almost unrelated.

“Being able to play tournament golf and being able to recover, practice and train and hit balls after a round and do all of the things that I need to be at a high level,” he explained, "I’m a long way away from that."

Woods — Tiger, that is — made it clear his hope is to reach the point where he can be an occasional competitor. We can safely assume he means to compete in the majors, not the Sanderson Farms Championship. The majors have always been his focus. That said, majors are played on some of the most physically demanding properties in the game, ballfields that are not easily traversed, places like Augusta National, Bethpage and Oakmont.

Woods can hit a mean golf shot, terrific. That’s a start. But will he be able to walk to where it landed and hit it again? Will he be able to do it some 70 or so times in succession, up and down hills, four days in a row, with a practice round or two, time on the range, sessions on a putting green? Or will he need help?

Remember, we’ve been down this road. The PGA Tour went all the way to the Supreme Court to deny Casey Martin in 2001. The court ruled in favor of Martin’s lawsuit citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, and he won the right to use a cart. Twenty years later, Martin is the golf coach at the University of Oregon. In October, his condition, Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, required his right leg be amputated.

Twenty-one years later, how far would the PGA Tour go to deny Tiger Woods a cart? What would golf’s governing professional institution say to its biggest meal ticket, its TV ratings-booster, its industry’s nitrous injector? What if he asks for a key? Hmmm?

Woods insists it will never come to that. “Not for a PGA Tour event, no,” he said. “That’s just not who I am. That’s not how I’ve always been, and if I can’t play at that level, I can’t play at that level.”

If that’s the case, as we look ahead to the 2022 schedule, as we try to predict when and where Woods might return, the British Open intrigues.

For one, the championship is still more than six months away. And while the uninitiated and untrained have no way of knowing how long it might take Woods to build the strength and stamina needed to compete in a 72-hole championship, we should take him at his word. That is, he is a “long way” from it.

Well, 6½ months is a longer way from it than 3½ months (Masters), or 4½ months (PGA), or 5½ months (U.S. Open). Moreover, the Open on July 14-17 will be conducted on the Old Course at St. Andrews. It seems quite fair to suggest the Old Course might be considerably less demanding to walk than Augusta (Masters), Southern Hills (PGA) or The Country Club (U.S. Open).

In fact, if we’re talking flat, walk-friendly, major championship golf courses, it doesn’t get any more accommodating than Old Tom’s joint. When ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth cosmography, they might have used St. Andrews as a working model. Moreover, Woods has won two Opens at St. Andrews, including a record-shattering version in 2000. He knows how to get around.

So, if the biggest story in 2022 is to be the real return, don’t be surprised if it happens at the Open. Oh yeah, and there’s one other reason Tiger Woods might feel he has a chance at St. Andrews.

Charlie will only be 13 at that point. He’s not in the field.

More Coverage of Tiger and Charlie Woods at the PNC Championship

- Tiger and Charlie Make 11 Straight Bridies, Fall Two Shots Short of Team Daly at PNC
- Heeeere's Charlie! Best Shots from 12-Year-Old Charlie Woods
- At PNC, Tiger Woods Reminds Us What We'd Missed
- A Closer Look at How Tiger and Charlie Woods' Golf Swings Are Different
- Photos: Tiger and Charlie Woods at 2021 PNC Championship