Tiger Woods has not played a major since missing the cut at the 2024 Open Championship and will not compete in the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. He also missed the entry deadline for the 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, extending an already puni
When Tiger Woods’s phone line was still warm from a late-night conversation. his next move wasn’t a tee time—it was a courtroom calendar. The 50-year-old says he was “just talking to the president” before his Florida DUI arrest. but for golf fans. the most visible development is what’s missing from the scoreboards.
Woods has not played in a major championship since the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he missed the cut. He will not play in the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. He also did not submit an entry for the 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale before last week’s deadline. according to Sports Illustrated. That means eight consecutive majors without the 15-time champion in the field.
The official explanation remains recovery. Woods is focused on his recovery following his March arrest on suspicion of DUI after a single-car rollover near his Jupiter Island. Florida. home. But the distance from golf’s “crown jewels” is stretching beyond what even longtime watchers had come to expect.
Woods missed all of the 2025 season after rupturing his Achilles just before the Masters. He then had his seventh back surgery, a lumbar disc replacement, in October. He spent months working his way back quietly. including a moment that looked like it might signal a return to form. Three days before the crash. he was competing in the TGL championship in Palm Beach Gardens. with his girlfriend Vanessa Trump and her daughter Kai cheering from the ropes.
Then. on March 27. his Land Rover clipped a truck on a residential road in Jupiter Island and rolled onto its side. Woods crawled out through the passenger window. Nobody was seriously hurt. The breathalyzer showed no alcohol. but Woods refused a urine test. failed a field sobriety test. and had two hydrocodone pills in his pocket. He was charged with DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. It was his second DUI arrest.
In 2017, Woods was found asleep behind the wheel and later pleaded guilty to reckless driving. His driver’s license is now suspended. This time, Woods has pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial. A judge has granted prosecutors access to his prescription records from a Palm Beach pharmacy going back to Jan. 1. The case is expected to take six to nine months to play out.
Four days after the crash. he posted a statement: “I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health.” He went to Switzerland for more than six weeks. According to People. he returned to Florida specifically to attend Kai Trump’s high school graduation and support Vanessa. who recently announced her breast cancer diagnosis. before reportedly returning to treatment.
USGA CEO Mike Whan told Sports Illustrated he’d be “super surprised” if Woods played any USGA event in 2026.
Yet the door is not completely shut. Woods still holds permanent exemptions to the Masters and PGA Championship as a past winner. His Open Championship exemption runs until he turns 60. Woods has been through the “is he done?” question before—after the brutal 2021 crash that shattered his leg. when the smart money said his career was over. He ultimately won the 2019 Masters after years of personal turmoil, scandal, and multiple back surgeries.
What’s different now is the overlap: a string of medical setbacks that already kept him out of majors. a DUI case that is still moving toward trial. and a schedule that is increasingly passing him by. The official focus is recovery. The entry decisions are harder to explain away. And for the fans who still remember Woods at full speed—when majors weren’t just targets but inevitabilities—the absence is starting to feel permanent. even as the exemption lifelines remain.
Tiger Woods DUI arrest Jupiter Island Shinnecock Hills Royal Birkdale Open Championship exemption U.S. Open 2026 Achilles rupture back surgery hydrocodone pills prescription records jury trial
So he’s just not gonna play the majors anymore? Seems wild.
Wait, he said he was talking to the president before the DUI?? Like what does that even mean lol. Feel bad for his recovery but also… the courts are the courts.
It’s basically because he can’t get his back fixed right? I thought the DUI was the main headline but this sounds like injuries anyway. Also didn’t he used to play with an Achilles thing all the time? My memory’s messed up.
Eight straight majors without him and people are calling it recovery like that makes it okay. March arrest, seven back surgery, Achilles ruptured… at some point it’s not just “bad luck,” it’s his whole situation. Plus the article says his phone line was warm from a late night conversation—like the president thing is gonna change anything? I don’t care if it’s Shinnecock or Royal Birkdale, he needs to stay off the road.