When was the last time Tiger Woods played in the US Open? Past performances explored

When Tiger Woods won the Masters in 2019, he received automatic entry into the US Open for five years. However, when this status expired this year, and all other ways of entry seemed blocked, fans were keen on knowing whether the 48-year-old could play at the Major.

It has been recently announced that Woods has received a special exemption from the USGA to play in the US Open, and the golfer has accepted it. Woods' acceptance to play the major does not come as a surprise due to his performances at the event.

The last time Tiger Woods won the US Open was in 2008 when he managed to have a one-shot lead over Rocco Mediate in the playoff. Before that, Woods won the competition in the years 2000 and 2002. In total, he has won this competition thrice.

However, the last time Woods played the US Open was in 2020. He couldn't deliver his best performance at the time and eventually missed the cut. Hence, when he returns to play the US Open after a gap of four years, he will be keen to prove himself.

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9-time major winner recently said Tiger Woods could have been the greatest of all time

In recent times, notably after his accident, Tiger Woods experienced a slump in form. However, things weren't always like that for him. At one time in his career, Woods was one of the greatest golfers of all time. Woods' dominance on the course is something many golfers aspired to.

However, professional golfer Garry Player believes that Woods ruined his career by getting help from people who weren't as good as him. In a video shared by NUCLR Golf, Player spoke about Woods' dominance, stating:

"Tiger Woods had his career ruined. Tiger Woods won 14 majors. The 14th... he won by 15 shots. You know what that's like? It's like running the 100 meters in seven seconds."

He further added:

"The next week he's having a lesson from a man who I don't know if he played in the Masters could break 80. Couldn't! But he's having a lesson from this guy. Then he goes to another guy who couldn't break probably 85 in the Masters... Why did Tiger do that?"

Player concluded by saying that Woods would have become the greatest athlete on the planet. However, wrong decisions prevented him from achieving the same. He said:

"He would have gone down as the greatest athlete the world has ever seen, man or woman, in the planet! But he made the wrong decision. It's very easy to do because we're all trying to get better."

Player may or may not be right, but Woods has already done enough to cement his place as one of the greatest players of all time. It will be interesting to see how he plays soon.