Woods ready for a testing week
WINGED FOOT: RATES IT AS ONE OF THE MOST BRUTAL COURSES
Tiger Woods returns to the US Open at Winged Foot this week with a score to settle against a course he regards as one of the three toughest in the world.
During more than a decade of dominance between Woods’ first Major victory in 1997 and his 14th Major at the 2008 US Open, the former world No 1 played in 46 consecutive Majors.
That streak of 46 tournaments included only one missed cut – at the 2006 US Open held at Winged Foot.
Woods, who collected the 15th Major of his career at last year’s Masters, is preparing for another demanding assignment in New York this week.
The 44-year-old believes only Oakmont in Pennsylvania and Carnoustie Links in Scotland run Winged Foot close in terms of difficulty.
“It’s right up there next to Oakmont and I think Carnoustie as far as just sheer difficulty without even doing anything to it,” Woods said.
“Those three golf courses, they can host Major championships without ever doing anything to them. (Winged Foot) or Oakmont is either one or two.”
Woods scouted Winged Foot ahead of last month’s Northern Trust in Boston, and came away convinced that the course remains as brutal as ever.
“This golf course is going to be one of the more difficult ones,” Woods said.
“The winning scores here have never traditionally been very low. I don’t see that changing this week.
“The golf course is going to be hard. It depends on how difficult they want to set up these pins, give us a chance at it. But with the forecast, it’s going to be difficult no matter what.”
Woods said he was ill-prepared for his previous US Open outing at Winged Foot in 2006, which came just over a month after the death of his father Earl.
Although Woods delivered one of the sporting stories of 2019 with his comeback victory at the Masters, he acknowledged that challenging for Majors gets more difficult with the passage of time.
If Woods is to add to his Major tally this week, and edge closer to Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 wins, he will do so without the emotional support of the galleries.
This week’s tournament is being played without spectators. –