Tiger Woods after the defeat at The Open 2019

78 strokes in the opening round is Woods' worst number through The Open. The 43-year-old star admits it was difficult to play at Royal Portrush because of his poor health. "I don't want to deny the pain," Woods said after ranking 144 out of 156 golfers who attended the opening round.

In an interview with the BBC after The Open, Jack Nicklaus suspects Wood is recurring back injuries. This is a presumptuous conjecture, if you look at Woods' swing ability, grimace face and heavy form after every hole. No more "Super Tiger" image like at The Masters three months ago, instead it was a sign of age.

Woods once said that cutting the schedule was to focus entirely on major events - the arena where he needed four more titles to break Jack Nicklaus's record. But the opposite happened: the less he played, the worse Woods failed.

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After winning the Masters on April 14, Woods didn't play a single tournament for the next 33 days. He rested in the villa in Florida, where there was a golf course for daily practice. Woods only played at PGA Championship since then. This is the first year this event takes place in May.

Woods, opposite to expectations, he spent very bad two rounds at Bethpage State Park, before being cut off with a total of +5 points. "I just won The Masters and I'm 43. So this result is not disappointing," the 81-year-old PGA Tour owner confirmed in an interview later.

Woods' excuse shows that his biggest rival is now his physical ability. But more importantly, the way he handled the "physical crisis" was not reasonable. Woods has two weeks off in Thailand, playing only 12 rounds of golf during the summer to prepare for The Open. That meager preparation was not enough for a big event, taking place in a strange arena in extreme weather conditions.

Only made 10 appearances since the beginning of 2019, making Woods difficult to catch up again when entering major tournaments. This was the first time in his career that Woods was cut off in two awards in the same year as major. This sinusoidal form is unprecedented with the "Super Tiger".

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Woods' performance at The Open evokes the lethargic image he showed at the Ryder Cup last year. It raises questions about Woods' fitness both in the short and long term. In the summer of 2018, after repeated having poor results, Woods rushed into the tournament with great determination. It was not until September that he showed signs of "out of battery".

With 20 events in attendance, 2018 is the second year Woods has played the second most in 14 years, just behind the 2005 season (24 tournaments). It was a launchpad for him to be crowned at The Masters this year. But 2019 may see the "Super Tiger" exhausted sooner than expected. What happened in the last two months has shown that reducing the schedule is not the feasible approach for Woods to maintain "longevity on golf".

Compared to last year, Woods' average swing speed was down 4.6 km/h, though he was the least played star on the PGA Tour to date. Although the number above is due to changes in playing techniques, it is difficult to deny the signs of aging in Woods's body.

"I can not always appear in a tournament," Woods assured fans and reporters about his physical concerns. However, the result in The Open is a serious warning for Tiger Wood about making full use of the remaining time to earn more titles, before not having enough power to play.