The 150th Open: Tiger Woods denies retirement rumours ahead of major return at St Andrews | Golf News

Woods is a three-time winner of The Open, including twice at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005; world No 994 to play alongside US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Max Homa for the first two rounds at St Andrews – watch live on Sky Sports The Open

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Tiger Woods tells Sky Sports he has no plans to retire at the moment but admits this may his last chance to win an Open at St Andrews

Tiger Woods has shut down speculation that he plans to retire from golf at The 150th Open, although admitted it may be the last time he features competitively at St Andrews.

The 15-time major champion has been plagued by injuries in recent years and has competed just twice in official events since last February’s career-threatening car crash in California.

Woods has previously indicated a return to full-time PGA Tour golf would no longer be possible, while the former world No 1 sitting out of last month’s US Open to get himself physically ready to tee it up in the final men’s major of the year.

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Tiger Woods explains why he had to play in the 150th Open Championship and admits he doesn’t know how many he has left in him

The 46-year-old is a two-time winner at the Old Course and will be in his 50s the next time The Open will return to St Andrews, leading to rumours Woods would join fellow greats Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in calling time on their Open careers at the historic venue.

“Who? Me, retire? No, no, no, no. I’m not retiring,” Woods told Sky Sports. “But not playing a full schedule, that’s just my reality. I don’t like it, but I just have to accept it.

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Rory McIlroy explains why the public are seeing a more open and joyful Tiger Woods these days as he, as McIlroy describes it, winds down his career

“As far as retiring, no. But this may be my last chance I’ll be playing at St Andrews with a chance to compete at the highest level.

“If it comes around in five, six, seven or eight years’ time, whatever the time frame is, who knows if I’ll be playing the game of golf at this level? I appreciate every single moment, especially coming back here.”

Woods’ only appearances this year saw him labour to a 47th place finish at The Masters after back-to-back rounds of 78 over the weekend at Augusta National, then withdraw ahead of his final round at the PGA Championship having battled to make the cut at Southern Hills.

The world No 994 competed in the JP McManus Pro-Am last week and played a practice round with Rory McIlroy in Ireland, before following 18 holes on Saturday evening with Justin Thomas at St Andrews with another round the following day with the reigning PGA champion.

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With 33 major titles between them, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus had an iconic picture taken together on Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews

Woods played nine holes on Monday morning ahead of competing alongside McIlroy, Lee Trevino and Georgia Hall in the R&A’s Celebration of Champions later that day, before playing another nine holes on Tuesday, with the three-time Champion Golfer confident of overcoming his physical struggles to contend this week in Scotland.

“It [his body] is okay, it’s never going to be great, but it is a lot better than what it was earlier in the year,” Woods added. “I’ve got a lot stronger so the whole idea was to, yes it may seem like to people that I have played a lot, but I really haven’t played that much.

“Saturday I just chipped and putted and walked, Sunday I touched the ball but I didn’t do as much work on the green because I did a lot of that Saturday. Yesterday [Monday] and today [Tuesday] I just played nine and then tomorrow [Wednesday] I’m going to take a day off and practice and be ready for Thursday.

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As Tiger Woods prepares to play in the 150th Open Championship, watch a selection of his greatest shots in the event

“I need to get myself into that position, making sure I’m doing all my homework, making sure I do all the things I need to do, making sure I put myself in there with a shout going into that back nine on Sunday. That’s my responsibility and hopefully I can do it.”

Woods has been grouped alongside US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Max Homa for the first two rounds, teeing off at 2.49pm on Thursday and then 9.58am for Friday’s second round. That threeball will be part of Featured Group coverage available via the red button on Sky Sports The Open.

Watch The 150th Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports’ dedicated channel. Live coverage begins on Thursday from 6.30am live on Sky Sports The Open.