The Open: Tiger Woods trims schedule to prolong career

Tiger Woods is still trying to work out his playing schedule towards the end of the season and admitted he needs to play sparingly to prolong his career.

Woods has played in only nine tournaments this year, and just three since his memorable Masters triumph in April, and he will tee up at The 148th Open this week without any competitive golf since the US Open last month.

The concerns over his fragile back have remained a big talking point this year due to his reduced playing schedule, but he insisted he has taken the “less is more” approach that he learned from good friend Steve Stricker.

“It’s trying to figure out what is the best way to go about it,” said the 43-year-old, who admitted his 17 starts last year took a heavy toll, particularly at the Ryder Cup.

“Some of the guys have decided to play quite a bit in the fall and get their number up so they don’t have to play as much in the spring and the summer, and save themselves for the play-offs. Other players have taken a different approach.

“I’m probably more in line with the Steve Stricker approach. But I learned last year I played a little bit too much, the body was pretty beat up. And after I won in Atlanta, you saw what I did at the Ryder Cup, and I was worn out. And, unfortunately, I didn’t contribute to the team at all in points and we end up losing.

“So this year I made a conscious effort to cut back on my schedule to make sure that I don’t play too much. I want to play here as long as I possibly can. And you have to understand, if I play a lot, I won’t be out here that long.”

Despite his lack of competitive golf over the last month, Woods remains confident of mounting a strong challenge for a 16th major title at Royal Portrush this week, and he believes experience and links golf knowledge will be the keys to success.

“It allows the players that don’t hit the ball very far or carry the ball as far to run the golf ball out there,” he added. “There is an art to playing links golf. It’s not a case of having, say, 152 yards, bringing out the automatic nine-iron and hitting it 152.

“Here, 152 yards could be a little bump-and-run pitching wedge, or it could be a chip with a six-iron. It could be a lot of different things.

“So the more I’ve played over here and played under different conditions, being able to shape the golf ball both ways and really control trajectory, it allows you to control the ball on the ground. And as we know, it’s always moundy and it’s hard to control the ball on the ground.

“But being able to control it as best you possibly can in the air to control it on the ground allows the older players to have a chance to do well in The Open Championship.”

(c) Sky News 2019: The Open: Tiger Woods trims schedule to prolong career