EUROPEAN TEAM EVER

LEGENDS OUT IN FORCE FOR SENIOR OPEN

was denied the Claret Jug by an inspired Woods at St Andrews in 2005, believes he’ll now be better placed to claim that 15th Major.

He said: “It’s coming on for half a dozen times now where Tiger’s been in position and hasn’t finished it off.

“Leading after seven holes, things were going well.

“Suddenly, from someone who was as much in a zone as he has ever been for the first 61 holes of that championship, things started going wrong.

“He started shouting at the ball, started being more tense and anxious where the ball was going.

“At eight he was up and down in a bunker, at 10 he got unfortunate but recovered. Then by 11 his luck ran out having missed the last few fairways.

“You feel the tension. He’s not immune to that pressure and how much it meant. And it was at that stage around the turn it meant too much. It’s funny, he sort of settled down after he’d double bogeyed 11 and dropped another at 12 because he was out of the lead. He got back to what he was doing and finished one under from there.

“It wasn’t enough but obviously he can win another Major. He was leading after 64 holes for goodness sake. He was damn close and he’ll learn from that experience.

“It was his biggest test yet since he’s come back and he’ll learn from that. He’ll analyse what went wrong and come back stronger the next time he’s in that position.

“He’s swinging the club as well as he did in 2000 here, which was the best we’ve ever seen, to hold four Majors in a row. It’s great to see him back and great to see him play.”