TIGER WOODS BELIEVES he is “not that far off from winning golf tournaments” after a fine weekend at the Players Championship.
After only just making the cut at Sawgrass, Woods charged up the leaderboard with a seven-under 65 on Saturday and duly rose to second place – four shots behind runaway leader Webb Simpson – with six birdies in the first 12 holes of his final round.
A bogey at the 14th ultimately halted Tiger’s charge and he double-bogeyed the iconic par-three 17th to finish with a 69 and a share of 11th at 11 under.
Nevertheless, the 14-time major champion oozed positivity as he reflected on a fourth top-12 finish in his last six starts.
“I played so well this weekend. Unfortunately, I just didn’t cash in,” said Woods. “I felt good on basically every facet of the game.
“God, I hit the ball good [in round four]. I didn’t really miss a shot and only ended up on 69. Not to really mis-hit a shot and only shoot three under par is just weird, because I played much better than that.”
Woods endured years of injury misery prior to his latest comeback from back surgery and was unsure of whether he would play competitively again as recently as last year.
He added: “There’s no way I would have predicted I would be at this point at the beginning of the year, the way I was just coming back and just trying to get a feel for it and then hopefully have a schedule. Didn’t know.
“But now I feel like I’ve got my playing feels and I’m playing tournament golf and I’ve got it. I’m not that far off from winning golf tournaments.”
Woods’ playing partner on Sunday, Jordan Spieth, certainly expects to see the 42-year-old add to his haul of 79 PGA Tour titles.
“I mean, he’ll win sometime soon enough,” said Spieth. “His game, if I compare it to other guys that are winning golf tournaments that I’m playing with day-to-day, it’s right up there.”
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That’s bad. Even playing in competitions at local club, you can’t be asking/saying that before another player has hit. More surprised that they say it happens every week on tour.
…Paul might not be doing himself or his TV work in the States any good being so forthright…..
@Michael Murray: he’ll be absolutely fine, nothing wrong with calling out players and especially officials for obvious rules violations….