Tiger Woods showed up for his late first round tee time at the British Open giggling while reading his phone. All looked well and we were ready for the Cat to start a run at what feels like a perfectly set-up major for him to contend. Then he turned the corner, the record screeched to a halt, and the Golf Channel cameras picked up some noticeable apparatus on his neck.
Tiger Woods showed up to The Open with KT tape on his neck. He says it’s no big deal.
Hmmm this is not the ideal look for an oft-injured 42-year old at the start of a major championship. But we’ll go with the explanation that it’s nothing for now.
It looked like KT tape that you often see on athletes, including some golfers, and can serve a few injury-related purposes. It’s stated as a way to prevent injury, wake up muscles, reduce swelling, among others. Golf Channel came back from commercial and analyst Nick Faldo confirmed that it was KT tape on Woods.
It could be nothing, but it’s not ideal and was a departure from every other time we’ve seen him show up healthy all season long. We’ve seen no injury-related equipment on or around or near Tiger in public all season, so this set off some alarms.
As you might expect, Tiger’s people came out quick with a statement saying he just had a stiff neck and all was well now.
That all reads fine. It sounds reasonable and I believe it. But the issue with Tiger’s “camp” at this point, is that we have a history of statements saying everything is fine when, in fact, it is very much not fine. Last year in Dubai, we were told Tiger simply had a stiff back and back spasms were the reason why he was moving gingerly and would have to withdraw. We then never saw him play again and he had spinal fusion surgery a couple months later.
So you can exhale if you want to. I am going to believe their statement that it’s nothing. But I’ll proceed with caution and you’d be excused for not taking the explanation at face value.
Tiger went through his full warm-up routine with the tape still on his neck. He tees off at 10:21 a.m. ET and we will be watching closely throughout the day. If healthy, he’s got the current form and the brilliant creative mind to be a legit, actual threat to win this week. Here’s hoping a stupid injury doesn’t stop him.
Update: Tiger started his round with the tape still on his neck and opened with a birdie. So it appears all is OK and he’ll play the full day with it still on the back of his neck.
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