The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Woods in confident mood for major test
PGA: Former world No 1 does not see lack of competitive action as problem
Tiger Woods is confident he can win a 16th major title in the US PGA Championship, despite heading into the event with just four competitive rounds under his belt since mid-february.
“Of course,” Woods answered with a smile when the final question of his pretournament press conference was if he could win at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
The 44-year-old returned to action at the Memorial Tournament in July following five months on the sidelines due to injury and the coronavirus pandemic but looked understandably rusty in finishing in a tie for 40th.
However, Woods has plenty of good memories of this week’s venue to draw upon when play gets under way on tomorrow, having defeated John Daly in a play-off to win the Wgc-american Express Championship in 2005 and also compiling a perfect 5-0 record in the 2009 Presidents Cup.
“I feel good,” Woods said. “Obviously I haven’t played much competitively, but I’ve been playing a lot at home so I’ve been getting plenty of reps that way.
“Competitively I haven’t played that much, but the results that I’ve seen at home, I’m very enthusiastic about some of the changes I’ve made so that’s been positive.
“I’m just trying to get my way back into this part of the season. This is what I’ve been gearing up for. We’ve got a lot of big events starting from here, so looking forward to it. This is going to be a fun test for all of us. The rough is up and fairways are much more narrow than they were here in 2009.”
Woods celebrated his incredible Masters victory last April “for quite some time” and unsurprisingly missed the cut when returning to action in the US PGA at Bethpage, where Brooks Koepka successfully defended his title.
That made it four major titles in eight starts for Koepka, a rare run of form which Woods in particular can appreciate.
“There’s probably only been two, maybe three times where I knew that all I had to do was keep my heartbeat going and I was going to win the tournament,” Woods added.
“’97, I felt pretty good at Augusta and then Pebble Beach in 2000 and then obviously at St Andrews the same year. My game was clicking on all cylinders for maybe the week prior. The week of it got a little bit better and just had to maintain it the rest of the week.
“Those were rare exceptions. It hasn’t happened to me that often in my career, non-major or major, but those three weeks in particular, I just felt really good and had control of every single shot shape, distance, feels around the greens, putter. I had everything rolling.”
The chances of that happening this week appear unlikely and Woods is rated a 35-1 chance to lift the Wanamaker Trophy for a fifth time on Sunday, especially given the relatively cold, damp conditions which are forecast.