Tiger Woods said retirement is not on his mind after missing the cut with his worst ever performance at The Open on Friday.
Woods, who is still struggling with fitness issues after almost losing his right leg in a car crash in 2021, added a 77 to his first-round 79 at Troon and the 36-hole sum of 156 equalled what he shot in the 2015 US Open.
At 14-over he was close to being dead-last but insists he still enjoyed the experience and failure to produce any kind of performance had not influenced his decision to keep coming back.
"It wasn't very good. I made a stumble at two when I needed to go the other way and I was just fighting it pretty much all day," Woods said after his third successive missed cut at The Open.
"I never hit it close enough to make birdies and made a lot of bogeys.
"I loved it. I always loved playing major championships, I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors.
"It tests you mentally, physically and emotionally and I wasn't as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping I'd find it somehow but I never did. Consequently my scores were pretty high."
Woods has now failed to complete four rounds in six of his eight majors since suffering severe leg injuries in a car crash in 2021.
His only appearance outside the four majors this year came at the Genesis Invitational in February, when he was forced to withdraw after just six holes of his second round.
The 48-year-old, though, insisted he is improving physically and will see results in his game should that continue.
"I'd like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year," Woods added.
"I've gotten better, even though my results really haven't shown it, but physically I've gotten better, which is great.
"I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again."
Woods will look to step up his schedule next year but for this season he has only two events lined up - the Hero World Challenge, which he hosts for his own foundation, and the PNC Championship in which he plays alongside son Charlie.
"No, I'm not going to play until then. I'm going to just keep getting physically better and keep working on it," he said.
"Hopefully just come back for our, what is it, our 'fifth major', the father/son, so looking forward to it.
"I'd have liked to have played more but I wanted to make sure I played the major championships this year."
Meanwhile, Shane Lowry moved into the lead at seven under par.
Lowry had been usurped at the top of the leaderboard late on Thursday by unheralded Englishman Daniel Brown, who posted a six under 65.
However, the Irishman, who won his sole major at the British Open in 2019, recovered from a dramatic double bogey on the 11th that threatened to derail his charge to post a two under par round of 69.
Lowry leads by two shots from Brown, who showed little sign of nerves under the spotlight in his first major, with a steady 72 to sit at five under.
"To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a six. It wasn't a disaster," said Lowry on his travails at 11.
"To be leading this tournament after two days, it's why you come here."
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
MATCH INFO
Day 2 at Mount Maunganui
England 353
Stokes 91, Denly 74, Southee 4-88
New Zealand 144-4
Williamson 51, S Curran 2-28
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Start times
5.55am: Wheelchair Marathon Elites
6am: Marathon Elites
7am: Marathon Masses
9am: 10Km Road Race
11am: 4Km Fun Run
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
More coverage from the Future Forum
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match info
Manchester United 3 (Martial 7', 44', 74')
Sheffield United 0
Predictions
Predicted winners for final round of games before play-offs:
- Friday: Delhi v Chennai - Chennai
- Saturday: Rajasthan v Bangalore - Bangalore
- Saturday: Hyderabad v Kolkata - Hyderabad
- Sunday: Delhi v Mumbai - Mumbai
- Sunday - Chennai v Punjab - Chennai
Final top-four (who will make play-offs): Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
Fiorentina v Torino (8pm)
Hellas Verona v Roma (10.45pm)
Sunday
Parma v Napoli (2.30pm)
Genoa v Crotone (5pm)
Sassuolo v Cagliari (8pm)
Juventus v Sampdoria (10.45pm)
Monday
AC Milan v Bologna (10.45om)
Playing September 30
Benevento v Inter Milan (8pm)
Udinese v Spezia (8pm)
Lazio v Atalanta (10.45pm)
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