R&A spokesman tells Sky Sports that Tiger Woods "won't be playing at Royal Liverpool" for The 151st Open from July 20-23; former world No 1 will now miss three of the four majors in 2023, having undergone ankle surgery in April
Friday 16 June 2023 20:29, UK
Tiger Woods' major season is over after being ruled out of The 151st Open next month at Royal Liverpool due to injury.
Woods has only made five PGA Tour starts since October 2020, having undergone back surgery later that year and then suffering career-threatening leg and ankle injuries in a car crash in February 2021.
The 15-time major champion made a remarkable return to action 14 months later at The Masters, where he finished 47th after withdrawing mid-tournament at the PGA Championship and missing the cut in The 150th Open at St Andrews.
Woods made it through to the weekend on his return to action at February's Genesis Invitational but withdrew during the third round at The Masters in April because of injury, having reaggravated his plantar fasciitis in cold conditions at Augusta National.
He underwent "successful" surgery later that month to address "post-traumatic arthritis" and a previous fracture of his talus, a bone in the ankle joint, with the 47-year-old then sitting out the PGA Championship and US Open to continue his recovery.
The former world No 1 remained listed in the field for the final men's major of the year, although Woods is now set to miss out on competing at the venue where he claimed the most recent of his three Open victories.
"We have been advised that Tiger won't be playing at Royal Liverpool," an R&A spokesman told Sky Sports News. "We wish him all the best with his recovery."
Woods, who completed the career Grand Slam at The Open in 2000 and lifted the Claret Jug again at St Andrews five years later, won the 2006 contest at Hoylake to secure his first tournament victory since the death of his father two months earlier.
The 82-time PGA Tour winner is yet to set a timeline on when he will be able to return to competitive action.
Cameron Smith defends his title this summer, having claimed a maiden major win at St Andrews in 2022, while Rory McIlroy will return to the venue where he lifted the Claret Jug in 2014 for the first of back-to-back major victories.
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