Tiger Woods: Donald Trump incident derailed Open prep

It’s the story that has dominated the 24-hour rolling news channels for four days now.

And, it turns out, the reason why Tiger Woods’ preparation for this week’s Open hasn’t gone quite to plan.

Woods arrived in Troon on an overnight flight from his home in Florida, and a few hours later was on the first tee of the Ayrshire town’s famous links to get his latest bid to win a 16th major underway.

And while he looked in good shape as he got his first 18 in, Woods has revealed that his plans were derailed by a sleep problems on the flight over from the United States.

The reason for the lack of shut-eye?

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

• Whisper it – but we may just have our Tiger Woods back

• Donald Trump makes $1 million golf match offer to Joe Biden

Trump, who is looking to become just the second president to serve non-consecutive terms despite being the first to be impeached on more than one occasion, was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania when he was shot at by a gunman, but escaped with minor injuries.

Woods has business links to the Republican hopeful after his course design company was involved with Trump’s Dubai property, and the 48-year-old was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – generally considered the highest civilian honour in the US – shortly after his Masters victory in 2019.

And speaking to the BBC, Woods said he was glued to the coverage of the assassination attempt on his private jet as he made his way over to Scotland – though it came at a price.

“I didn’t accomplish a lot because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind,” he explained.

“It was a long night, and that’s all we watched the entire time on the way over here.

“I didn’t sleep at all on the flight, and then we just got on the golf course.”

Woods was more sprightly in his pre-tournament press conference, in which he cracked jokes about Colin Montgomerie’s retirement dig and the Ryder Cup captaincy.

We’re recording daily episodes of The bunkered Podcast from The Open – so make sure you’re subscribed!

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor