Stronger Woods says he can win PGA Championship

Tiger Woods’s comeback after nearly losing his leg in a car crash continues at the PGA Championship this week and the 46-year-old believes he is capable of hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy for a fifth time.

Very few athletes, especially ones returning from careerthreatening injuries, can get away with such bravado, but Woods, as he has proven time and again, is no ordinary athlete.

Woods has long maintained he would never enter an event he did not feel he could win.

The 15-time major winner made the same assessment of his chances in April ahead of the Masters.

At that moment, however, it seemed barely credible, coming from someone who just 14 months earlier was lying in a hospital bed with doctors contemplating the amputation of his mangled leg.

An inspired Woods sent a jolt through the sporting world when he made the cut at Augusta National before running out of steam, closing with sixover 78s on Saturday and Sunday, his worst-ever scores at the Masters.

Back at Southern Hills where he won the 2007 PGA Championship, Woods says he is stronger, better prepared and now the only thing left is to “just go out there and do it”.

“I feel like I can (win) definitely,” Woods said.

“I’ve gotten stronger since then (the Masters).

“But it’s still going to be sore and walking is a challenge.”

Living by the motto “no pain, no gain”, Woods took one day off following the Masters and over the five weeks leading up to the PGA Championship has continually increased his workload.

“He’s Tiger,” world number two Jon Rahm summed it up.

“He’s a competitor. He’s going to try win every single time.”

Whether Woods can win is open to debate but he will be looking for signs of progress since the Masters, particularly in his endurance and putting, which he feels kept him from contending for another Green Jacket.