Tiger Woods’s comeback after almost shedding his leg in a automobile crash continues on the PGA Championship this week and the 46-year-old believes he’s succesful of hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy for a fifth time.
Only a few athletes, particularly ones getting back from career-threatening accidents, can get away with such bravado, however Woods, as he has confirmed repeatedly, is not any odd athlete.
Woods has lengthy maintained he would by no means enter an occasion he didn’t really feel he may win.
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The 15-time main champion made the identical evaluation of his probabilities final month forward of the Masters.
At that second, nonetheless, it appeared barely credible, coming from somebody who simply 14 months earlier was laying in a hospital mattress with medical doctors considering the amputation of his mangled leg.
An impressed Woods despatched a jolt by means of the sporting world when he made the minimize at Augusta Nationwide earlier than working out of steam, closing with six-over 78s on Saturday and Sunday, his worst-ever scores on the Masters.
Again at Southern Hills the place he received the 2007 PGA Championship, Woods says he’s stronger, higher ready and now the one factor left is to “just go out there and do it”.
“I feel like I can (win) definitely,” Woods advised reporters on Tuesday.
“I have to do my work … I’ve gotten stronger since then (the Masters).
“However it’s nonetheless going to be sore and strolling is a problem. I can hit golf balls, however the problem is strolling.”
Dwelling by the motto “no ache, no achieve”, Woods took one day off following the Masters and over the five weeks leading up to the PGA Championship has continually increased his work load.
“He is Tiger,” summed up world No.2 Jon Rahm.
“He is a competitor. He will attempt to win each single time, and anytime he tees up, the world desires him to win.”
Whether Woods can win is open to debate but he, like everyone else, will be looking for signs of progress in the five weeks since the Masters, particularly in his endurance and putting, which he feels kept him from contending for another Green Jacket.
“I did not have the endurance that I needed, I should not count on it (to win) as a result of I did not earn it,” Woods stated.
“I hadn’t performed the work. Because the months cross and it’ll get higher. I really feel like I am doing higher.
“Taking a step back and looking at the overall big picture of it, it (Masters) was an accomplishment.
“However that different aspect of me says if I might have performed issues in another way, I may have challenged for that factor (Inexperienced Jacket).”
