Sir Nick Faldo has urged Tiger Woods to enter the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open to ensure he is ready for The Open.
Woods made his first appearance since undergoing back surgery three months ago at the Quicken Loans National last week but missed the cut after rounds of 74 and 75.
It was the first cut Woods had missed in 27 events and Faldo reckons the former world number one would benefit from a week of links golf at Royal Aberdeen to get rid of any rustiness before Hoylake.
Faldo said: “Woods will look at the bogeys he took, an awful lot of which were sloppy, and think he can sort it out.
“But the best way to knock off the rust is to come out and play competitive golf.
“He says he feels great so why doesn’t he add a tournament before The Open? The Scottish Open would be ideal, on the Royal Aberdeen links and everything.”
The European Tour would love to add Woods’ name to an already stellar field heading to the Balgownie links next week.
Entries for the event closed on Friday but the tour have confirmed that an invite for Woods, who has taken his children away for a holiday this week, would be available should he wish to tee it up at Royal Aberdeen.
Woods’ plans for next week remain undecided and his management team has not contacted The European Club in Ireland to make available their facilities which he has used in the past to hone his links skills before The Open.
Woods, who has not played in the Scottish Open since he was an amateur, was upbeat after his return at Congressional, despite failing to make it into the weekend field.
Woods said: “There is a lot of positives to take away from those two days.
“Even though I missed the cut by four shots; the fact that I was able to even play and had no setbacks.
“I came back four weeks earlier than we thought I could.
“I got my feel for playing tournament golf. I made a ton of simple little mistakes, misjudging things and missing the ball on the wrong sides and just didn’t get up-and-down on little simple shots.
“Those are the little things I can correct, which is nice.
“I’m going to take my kids on a little vacation, which will be nice, and start gearing up for The Open.
“I’m very excited to get to The Open and play that golf course.”