Open Championship 2018: Tiger Woods' best still unlikely to be good enough for 15th Major

Jack Nicklaus may have more major championship titles to his name — 18 to 14 — but many are those who see Tiger Woods as the greatest golfer of all-time. Woods’ best golf, contend his supporters, is better than anyone else’s best golf, Nicklaus included.

Certainly, the Golden — now Olden — Bear never won a US Open by 15 shots or an Open Championship by eight, as Woods did in the space of one month 18 years ago.

Things have changed since that awesome summit, however. Many surgeries, a few scandals and one divorce later, the Tiger of 2018 — who will tee off this afternoon in the company of Hideki Matsuyama and Russell Knox — does not possess the bite of 2000.

In neither of this year’s major championships has Woods contended. Tied for 32nd at the Masters, he missed the halfway cut at the US Open.

Still, there have been enough signs of life in his play on the PGA Tour to encourage some optimism.

Eight-times European No1 Colin Montgomerie is just one who reckons Woods has a solid opportunity to win a 15th Grand Slam title and a fourth Open Championship victory at Carnoustie this week.

Harking back to Woods’s play at Hoylake in 2006, the last time golf’s oldest and most important event was held on a course playing as firm and fast as Carnoustie, Monty pointed out that only once over the course of 72 holes did the eventual champion use his driver.

Two-times Open champion Padraig Harrington is another loath to label Woods a mere also-ran. “Tiger is good enough to win this Championship, no doubt about it,” said the Irishman. “His game is good enough.”

Woods, himself, fancies his chances, even while acknowledging his shortcomings.

Earlier this week, the 42-year-old said that he does not have to be that long off the tee in order to play well on a links course.

“You can roll the ball,” he said. “I hit a three-iron that went down there 300 yards. Even as I get a bit older, I can still chase some wood or long club down there and hit the ball the same distance as the younger guys.”

Then again, Woods has not won a major championship in more than a decade and his recent performances have also betrayed a fragility unheard of during his halcyon days.

In 11 appearances on the PGA Tour this year, Woods has yet to record what would be an 80th victory on his home circuit.

And it is by no means certain that the game’s elite — the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and defending champion Jordan Spieth — will not take advantage of their superior power from the tee. One who can see the really long hitters using their drivers almost everywhere is the leading swing coach, Pete Cowen.

“If they find a bad spot, they’ll just play for the middle of the green and move on,” says the Yorkshireman.

“If they hit the fairway, they will be in great position to make a birdie.

“And if the top players are all doing that, anyone else is going to be behind the eight-ball if they do not do the same.”

If that scenario does come to pass, Woods is going to be forced to use his driver more than he might want to, taking him outside his comfort zone with a club that has always been his Achilles’ heel. Even at his peak, Woods was relatively suspect off the tee when wielding the longest club in his bag. When he won his first US Open by those 15 shots at Pebble Beach in 2000, his driving came close to letting him down.

Having hooked his drive at the final hole of the third round on to the beach itself, a blissfully-unaware Woods was down to the last ball in his bag. So it is that, for all his public bravado and optimism — and the relatively slow Carnoustie greens that will surely mitigate his increasingly suspect putting stroke — the second-most prolific winner of major titles in history is unlikely to add to his haul.

The harsh truth is that, right now, too many players are better than Tiger Woods.