Tiger Woods has never played in the Olympics.
He hasn’t qualified for Paris 2024 because of his world ranking. Although he dominated golf for years, the timing just wasn’t right for him to join the Olympic team.
Golf came back to the Olympics in 2016 after being gone for over a century. If it had been included earlier, Woods would have definitely been part of Team USA during his peak years.
Olympic Dreams and Missed Chances
From May 1997 to February 2011, Woods was always ranked in the top three worldwide. He would have easily made it to any Olympics held during those years. By 2012, he was still among the top four players globally, so he would have likely competed then too .
Injuries started affecting him around 2016, especially after back surgery that year. This hurt his chances of making it to Rio de Janeiro.
Woods has always wanted to compete in the Olympics. Before the 2019 US Open, he admitted that age was catching up with him but expressed excitement about possibly qualifying for Tokyo 2020. “Olympic gold medal would be a hell of a feat,” he said. “First I need to qualify.”
Fans might think it’s sad that such a great player missed out on this chance.
In early 2020, Woods seemed ready for Tokyo after winning his 15th Major at The Masters in April 2019. He was seventh in the world rankings and needed to climb just a bit higher by June to secure his spot as one of the top four Americans.
Then COVID-19 hit, delaying everything by a year and pushing back qualifying deadlines until June 2021. In January that year, Woods had another surgery which almost ended his hopes entirely.
A month later, a car accident severely injured his leg and further dashed any remaining Olympic dreams. Since then, he’s struggled to get back into top form despite returning at The Masters in April 2021.
By the time qualification for Paris closed after the US Open at Pinehurst No.2, Woods was ranked far from where he needed to be—842nd when only those in the top seven could make it.
Fans know not to count him out completely; he’s proven doubters wrong before. But making it to Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 would require an extraordinary comeback even by his standards.
Do you think Tiger will ever make it to an Olympic Games?
