At the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday, Tiger Woods tipped his cap as he moved over to the 18th green and was greeted with applause from fans seated in the grandstand.
Unfortunately for Woods, there was no Bridgestone Invitational trophy waiting for him. The cheers sounded more like sympathy cheers instead of the jubilant congratulatory kind.
Tiger Woods, the world’s No. 1 golf player, looked like he was defeated – and he was.
According to Woods, “Shooting 18-over par is not fun… I don’t see how it can be fun shooting 18 over.”
Woods missed one of the last birdies needed to close with a 77. The shot gave Woods the highest 72-hole score out of any of the PGA Tours that he played in even when he was still an amateur. In fact, it was the first time ever that he shot over par in all of the four rounds since his participation at Oak Hill during the PGA Championship in 2003.
This is the current performance of the very same player who had never finished worse than fourth place at Firestone in the last 11 events, and the person who had not shot over par while playing on the South Course since 2006. Woods also paved history by being the first history to win seven times on the same course last year.
At the end of the tourney, Woods said, “It’s been a longer year,” sounding like a player who has already lost his direction.