Tiger Woods has vowed to “fight until the end” as a dispiriting performance at the 106th US PGA Championship prompted renewed calls for the 15-time major winner to retire.

The 48-year-old, who won this major at the Valhalla venue in 2000, missed the cut on seven-over, with his performance in placing 133rd in a 156-man field that included 20 club players arguably best summed up by the two triple-bogey sevens he carded in three holes early in his second round. Woods fell six shots short of qualifying for the weekend’s final two rounds, and after finishing last of those who made the cut at last month’s Masters, it was unavoidable that social media would be flooded with those pleading with Woods to call it quits.

There were experts within this chorus of disapproval, with Nick Bradley – formerly coach of, among others, Justin Rose, Sir Nick Faldo and Paul McGinley – concurring with Colin Moontgomerie’s verdict after the Masters. “I just wish Tiger had gone after he waved on that Swilken Bridge at St Andrews a couple of years ago,” Montgomerie told TalkSport last month. “He’s kept going, he thinks he can do it but it’s quite obvious now physically and mentally, that he can’t. There is a right time to go and there is a wrong time and I think he’s delaying it a little bit long now.”

Bradley made a reference and connection to Muhammad Ali’s unwillingness to hang up his gloves in the early 1980s. “Ali was born in Kentucky and fought for another two years after he should have quit,” Bradley stated. Tiger Woods is in Kentucky. He must resign before his final bookend is recognised as the same as Ali’s. There is no shame in admitting that you have lost a step.

The key difference is, of course, that Ali was putting his health in jeopardy by returning to the ring. No doubt, Woods’s body is battered after multiple back operations and the catastrophic injuries he suffered in a car crash three years ago that so almost cost him his right leg. But he is hardly risking his life by continuing.

It is Woods’s right to go out on his own terms and, at the moment, he insists that an exit is not imminent, despite his records sheet showing that in the seven official tournaments in which he has played since he was dragged from that wreckage in Los Angeles in February 2021, he has signed off in the final round just twice, with a best finish of 47th.

When asked why he keeps fighting so hard, even if it’s a lost cause, as the last 14 holes on Friday clearly were, Woods said, “Just keep fighting.” Keep the pedal to the metal, fight, grind, and work hard to post the best score possible. That is all I can do. It’ll be a lot of work, but I’ll persevere to the end.”

‘I just need to play more’

There were actually positives for Woods to extract from Vahalla and not just the fact that he came so close to converting his first competitive hole in 27 years on the eighth. Woods drove it well and his fitness looked much improved than at Augusta.

“Yeah, I need to clean up my rounds, but physically, yes, I am better than I was a month ago,” he said. “I still have more ways to go. Hopefully my team and I can get that done pre-Pinehurst and going into it [the US Open].”

The problem is that there are only three weeks until he flies to North Carolina for his national championship and how much can he do in this time? Woods is in a quandary as he realises that although his game is not tournament sharp, his leg and back will not allow him to tee it up more often.