Tiger Woods’s resolve to add a sixteenth stripe to his Sunday Red Logo continues to indulge him. The 15-time major winner has been practicing relentlessly at Pinehurst all week. However, a day prior to the start of the U.S. Open, it seems that Woods’s name will not remain on the tee schedule.

Now, questions are rising about the crux of Tiger Woods‘s absence at the most understated yet popularly loved event’s practice session. It has led to hushed speculations about whether Woods is planning to WD from the upcoming major, possibly due to another injury-related mishap. To the majority’s relief, however, this halt is not rooted in an alarming injury-induced withdrawal but finds its source in more lucrative measures to boost the star pro golfer’s performance.

Surprisingly enough, this news of relief comes from Woods’s son, Charlie Woods himself. Junior Woods has been assisting his dad throughout his practice rounds on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Charlie told Mike Tirico last night that his father “is dialed in around the greens and just needs to keep it in play off the tee,” in order to showcase his best skills during the course of the third major of the season.

In hopes of surpassing his Master’s history earlier this year and overcoming the darkness cast by his performance at the PGA Championship, Mr. T seems to be making some smart decisions to rejuvenate his body before the start of the stressful major week. But what has been the center of Woods’s preparation strategy before the big day this season?

The 82-time PGA Tour winner’s resolve to better himself has led him to resort to some unconventional strategies in the last few months. From taking a vow during the Masters week, to spending hours in the gym, Woods seems to be in the mood to do all it takes. Talking about his preparation strategy during the PGA Championship at Valhalla, Woods told reporters, “Just keep lifting, keep the molds going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, keep progressing, and hopefully the practice sessions will keep getting longer.”

While rest has remained a part of Woods’s masterplan to success, the U.S. Open seems to be the very first time he is making it a point to take a full-fledged day off the tee. It remains to be seen if this newfound approach will prove fruitful for Tiger Woods’s agenda to make a stronger than-before comeback, or if the nightmare of his last few performances and subsequent inability to make cuts result in another sad story and further delay to his plans of obtaining a sixteenth major title.

One of the most prestigious majors in the golf industry, the US Open has achieved many milestone moments since its debut in 1895. However, along with achievements, this tournament also had to deal with several controversial instances that came along the way.

With this year’s tournament just around the corner, here is a list of five of the most notorious controversies that are intertwined with the US Open.

5. Overnight plantation of Hinkle Tree

The winner of the Bing Crosby tournament and the World Series of Golf in 1979, Lon Hinkle, has become part of a historical landmark today. In the 1979 US Open, Hinkle discovered the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. He found a shortcut from the left of the 8th tee to a launch directly into the 17th fairway, which in turn shortened the par-5 hole.

According to Golf Week, “Hinkle and his caddie decided on a 220-yard shot through a hole in the sparse collection of trees. He hit a 2-iron and found the 17th fairway. Then he hit another 2-iron to the green and two-putted for a birdie. He finished the round with a 70.”

To avoid such a shot, the USGA planted a 15-foot-high Norway spruce at night between the first and second rounds. Since then, the tree has become a historical landmark and now goes by the name, Hinkle Tree.

4. USGA’s tremendous transformation of the winged foot in 1974

Johny Miller had scored the lowest record of all time, that is 63, to win a major tournament back in 1973. His margin of victory was two strokes against Forrest Fezler at the Winged Foot West Course in Mamaroneck, New York. However, Miller’s achievement at the winged foot was taken with a grain of salt by the USGA.

In the 1970s, the Winged Foot was considered one of the most difficult golf courses to score on. The USGA therefore felt insulted to see as remarkable a performance by Miller that year. To tackle the situation, the USGA decided to implement a much harsher golf course in 1974.

Golf Digest described the tremendous elevation of difficulty as something that did not wish to enable any player to score under par. They started the transformation as “fast greens to narrow fairways to obscenely high rough, not only abounded, but were ratcheted up to painful degrees.”

3. 2004 Shinnecock Hills’s dried golf course

In 2004, Shinnecock Hills GC was rapidly drying out from the immense heat and wind. But to maintain the difficulty, many people believed that the USGA pulled up some unfair tactics. It was recorded that the golf course was not watered before the third round on Saturday, making the third round extremely difficult to play. The trend was maintained, and the final round began without a watered golf course yet again.

No player was able to break par in the final round, and the average score for the day was 79, nine over par. Ernie Els who was playing in the final group, shot an 80. It was further reported that The green was double-cut and rolled on Friday evening and was reportedly rolled the next morning. It got worse as the weekend went on.

This move by the USGA, where the course was deliberately not made playable, made the tournament quite infamous for its toughness over the years. 2004, certainly gets a higher rank at that.

2. Tiger Woods’s win against the infamous warning sign at Bethpage State Park

The placard behind the first tee at Bethpage State Park was hung with a warning sign in 2002. It read, “The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.” Indeed, throughout the event, it was only Tiger Woods who scored under par and ultimately won the event with a 3-stroke margin of victory against Phil Mickelson.

Bethpage State Park featured a 260-yard carry to the fairway. As difficult as it was already, the strong headwind made the situation much worse for the players. On top of that, an additional difficulty arose with soft ground conditions, especially noticed on the par 4-10th hole in 2002.

1. Dustin Johnson’s uncertain penalty in the final round

Dustin Johnson had won the 2016 US Open, his first major maiden glory. However, the win did not come easy at Oakmont. On the 5th in the final round, Johnson’s golf ball moved without him addressing it directly. This instance initially put Johnson in doubt about whether he had maintained the rule correctly or not. The USGA back then did not mention anything about a penalty.

However, at his 12th tee, Johnson was informed by the USGA that his move at the 5th tee would be reviewed and the decision about his penalty would be announced at the end of the final round. When the round was completed, Johnson was penalized a stroke and signed for a one-under-par 69 to win by three shots.

“I feel like I’ve been playing some good golf,” said a satisfied Scottie Scheffler after clinching his fifth win of the season in the 2024 PGA Tour calendar. No one can refute him, especially after looking at him dishing out the best-ever performance of his career and still going strong more than halfway into the year’s schedule. And as he strives forward, the golf world naturally compares him to one of the greatest to ever play in the sport – Tiger Woods.

At 48 years old, Woods himself boasts 82 PGA Tour wins, including the 15 victories he secured through major championships. Although Scheffler only has 11 triumphs in the men’s circuit, alongside 2 major wins, he has proven himself more than capable of emerging victorious in the league with his scintillating gameplay. One can’t help but wonder if he would actually be able to match Woods’s legacy, especially after his recent feat!

The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) was established on April 6th, 1986, following the need for a worldwide system to replace the US PGA TOUR Money List, which initially decided the best players in the world. Fast forward to 1996, the points counted towards the whole arrangement were altered from a 3-year rolling system to a 2-year rolling system. Since then, only two golfers have managed to average more than 16 points: Woods and Scheffler.

The current No. 1 golfer had a points average of 15.2952 on the world rankings after his T2 finish at the Charles Schwab Challenge. But his triumph at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday has pushed him to a total of 754.78093 points while averaging a whopping 16.4083 after just 13 starts in 2024. This comes after he clinched the No. 1 spot for a total of 90 weeks, with 56 out of them being consecutive ones.

The 15-time major champ, on the other hand, had achieved the feat many times in his career which saw him topping the OWGR for a total of 683 weeks and consecutively for 281 weeks. He averaged 19.98 in 1999, 29.40 in 2000, 17.16 in 2005, 20.41 in 2006, and 19.61 in 2007. Nosferatu, consequently, dubbed the legend as a non-human while calling Scheffler the “only human No. 1 to reach 16 points since the OWGR switched to a 2-year rolling period.”

The 1997 Masters champ sure did overshadow the 2024 Masters winner when it came to the stats. Besides, it’s not as if that was the only number in which Scottie Scheffler had found himself close to rivaling the Hall of Famer.

Scheffler rakes in win after win on the men’s circuit

The golfer managed to dominate over the likes of the other PGA Tour players including Woods this season by finishing a total of 12 times in the top-10. He did so from a total of 13 starts while raking in 5 wins, two T2 placements, and a third-place finish. That’s not all. His tally of five victories has helped him join Woods, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas, all of whom (except Woods) have a personal best of five wins in a single season.

He is, thus, closely inching towards the likes of Nick Price (6 wins in 1994), Tom Watson (7 in 1980), Tiger Woods (6 in 2005 and 2009, 7 in 2007, 8 in 1999 and 2006, and 9 in 2000), and Vijay Singh (9 in 2004), all of whom were in a league of their own back then. It sure does feel as if the 2-time major champ has set his eyes on breaking the legend’s stats once again.

Is a top-10 contest in the making between Woods and Scheffler?

Woods has played 375 PGA Tour events throughout his 28-year-long career. And out of the starts he made at the same, the pro has garnered a total of 199 top-10 placements, not to mention 163 of them being him finishing the tournament inside the top-5 with 82 wins.

On the contrary, Scheffler has played in a total of 124 tournaments on the men’s circuit, placing himself inside the top 10 55 times. Out of these 55 placements, he has finished in the top 5 a total of 41 times, earning a whopping $66,589,782 in prize money. In contrast, Mr. T tops the career money list by a huge margin, at a figure of $120,999,166. Although the current No. 1 is far behind the legend, he has managed to catch up halfway with just one-third of Woods’s starts. This seems to hint at the golfer closing in on the 15-time major champ.

The two are, thus, miles apart when it comes to stats. However, Scottie Scheffler appears to be slowly closing in on the Hall of Famer and his figures. But he would need to work hard and strive even harder to equal the 82-time PGA Tour champ’s numbers, which he achieved over 28 years of excellence on the greens.