Tiger Woods feels ‘very enthusiastic’ about changes to his game

Four-time winner is quietly confident heading into USPGA in San Francisco

Tiger Woods looks pensive as he studies a shot during yesterday’s practice round ahead of this week’s US PGA Championship in San Francisco. Picture: Getty

Tiger Woods is feeling quietly confident that he can overcome a serious lack of competitive action to get himself in contention in this week’s return of major golf in the 102nd US PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.

The 44-year-old has only played four rounds on the PGA Tour since February, having tied for 40th in last month’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in his sole outing since the circuit’s restart in June.

However, Woods said he has been “gearing up” for the season’s first major and other upcoming big events and is “very enthusiastic” about some changes he has been working on at home in Florida.

“I feel good,” declared the 15-time major winner of being back at a venue which holds some happy memories, having defeated John Daly to win the WGC-American Express Championship in 2005 before claiming five points out of five in the Presidents Cup four years later.

“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. 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.”

Asked what he was most concerned about ahead of his bid to claim this particular prize for a fifth time, he added: “I think that more than anything, it’s just competitively, I haven’t played that much, but the results that I’ve seen at home, very enthusiastic about some of the changes I’ve made and so that’s been positive. Keep building. Keep getting ready and be ready come Thursday.”

As he began to show signs of a rejuvenation after fearing his career was under threat due to back problems, Woods finished second to Brooks Koepka, inset, at Bellerive two years ago before missing the cut as his compatriot made it back-to-back wins at Bethpage Black last May. “After I won the Masters, it was a bit of a whirlwind,” he said of that disappointment. “We got a chance to go to the White House, my family, and meet our President. I celebrated winning the Masters for quite some time. Came to Bethpage, played awful, and felt like, what, Brooks beat me by like 30 shots in two days. My game is better than it was going into that PGA. Hopefully I can put it together this week.”

He said that is easier said than done, adding: “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. In ’97, I felt pretty good at Augusta and then Pebble Beach in 2000 (US Open), and then obviously at St Andrews (in The Open) 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.”

Cool conditions are forecast for the event, with Woods hoping he can use his experience of playing in the San Francisco area a lot over the years to good effect. “Talking to some of the guys yesterday, they were laughing at their TrackMan numbers already,” he said. “They don’t have the swing speed or ball speed they did last week. It’s just the way it is.

“It’s going to be playing longer. It’s heavy air whether the wind blows or not, but it’s still going to be heavy. The ball doesn’t fly very far here. I’ve known that from all the years and times I’ve had to qualify up in this area. It’s always 20 degrees cooler here than it is down there in Palo Alto.”

Can he win an event, being played behind closed doors? “Of course,” he said, with a smile as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge.

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