Tiger is ready to bare his claws

‘ I’m still trying to beat everybody out there. That hasn’t changed’

the touch of a man in oven gloves so recently summon up the magic again so soon?

The answer will only truly be known when Woods’ 20th Masters starts tomorrow but the signs in practice here are that he is not just here for the champions’ dinner.

“People would never understand how much work I put into it to come back and do this again. It was sun- up to sundown,” said Woods.

“Whenever I had free time – if the kids were asleep I’d be doing it and then when they were in school I’d still be doing it. So it was a lot of work.

“It was a slow and steady progression each and every day. The whole focus was just to get better incrementally. “By the time the sun set, my target was that I should be a better player than I was in the morning – and that was the case.

“I feel like my game is fi nally ready to compete at this level – the highest level – and I’m excited to be here.” Woods arrives as the world No111, having completed just one fi nal round in the last 395 days but, as his old sparring partner Mark O’Meara, warned after sharing a practice round with him: “Never underestimate Tiger Woods.”

O’Meara bore witness to a particular improvement in Woods’ chipping which had become a comedy act. Woods’ explanation for that drifted into golf gobbledegook at times yesterday – he was caught between release patterns apparently.

But, whatever the problem was, whatever the methods he put in to address it, he seems to be through that phase after the countless hours with his coach Chris Como in the private grounds of his personal practice facility at home in Florida.

Woods described how his two children, Sam, seven, and sixyear- old Charlie, had been playing tag around him as he put in the graft.

Hopefully their presence did not coincide with the outbursts of their dad’s frustration that punctuated it. “There were times when a few clubs fl ew – they suddenly slipped out of my hand and travelled some pretty good distances too,” said Woods.

While Rory McIlroy will be rubbing shoulders with boyband superstardom, Woods will have his children to act as his boiler- suit- clad caddies when he tees it up in Augusta’s Par 3 contest. In recent years, he has chosen to avoid this cheesy event at Augusta’s miniature course to conserve his energy for the real thing.

Perhaps the participation of Woods is a sign of his growing awareness that he does have a sell- by date as a sportsman.

For the moment, Woods is still raging against the dying of the light and that should make for an unmissable spectacle for the Masters armchair viewer this week – not to mention a cause of concern for all his rivals.

“There is no other tournament in the world like the Masters and for me competing is still the same. I’m trying to beat everybody out there,” said Woods.

“That hasn’t changed – why should it? I prepare to win and expect to go and do that.

“The only difference is that I fi rst won the Masters when Jordan Spieth was still in diapers.”