Tiger Woods has not won a major in four long years, but the former world number one exudes great confidence in this week’s event in what he says is his favorite tournament, the British Open, which celebrates its 141st edition from Thursday at Royal Lytham and St Annes, England. And that in his last appearance on the American Tour he suffered a great slump in his game and the Californian did not even make the cut. Anyway, his magnificent season, translated into three victories and three top-10 (second, third and fourth), is a great letter of introduction to the long-lived British tournament.
He will have to improve a lot on his performances this year in the two previous majors, as he finished a mediocre 40th in the Augusta Masters, and in the U.S. Open Championship he had to settle for 21st place in the final standings. This is undoubtedly far from Woods’ pretensions, who has 14 Majors and 74 victories in the American Tour. He is only surpassed in the first section by Jack Nicklaus, with 18 majors, and in the second by Sam Snead, who scored 82 victories on the PGA Tour.
Buoyed by his 73rd PGA Tour victory at the Memorial tournament two weeks ago in Dublin, Ohio, Woods is happy with his game and returns to a course he knows well from his undergraduate days at Stanford University.
The last time Tiger lifted the championship trophy in a major was in 2008, at the US Open, when he defeated Rocco Mediate in a play-off, after Woods had forced a playoff with a bridge on the 18th at Torrey Pines Golf Course, California. The former number one has also won two other US Opens, four Masters, three British Opens and four US PGAs.
The first major Tiger won was the 1997 Masters, in what was his first participation in a major. At the age of 21 he became the youngest player to win the tournament and also did it with another record, the lowest score, 18 under par. The legend of possibly the greatest golfer of all time began.
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