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Next test for Tiger: Winning majors
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Tiger Woods acknowledges the gallery on the 18th green after winning the AT&T National golf tournament Sunday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. Woods may be playing his best golf since 2009, but he also knows that is no guarantee that it will mean he will win a major championship.
Associated Press
bethesda, md.
For all the endless parallels between the so-called new Tiger Woods and the old one, this was one comparison he didn’t mind.
Winning at Congressional made it seem like 2009 all over again.
Woods returned from a significant leg injury back then amid questions whether he could be the same golfer he once was. He answered by winning Bay Hill, Memorial and the AT&T National in the first half of the season, and he wound up winning six times on the PGA Tour, seven worldwide.
This time, he is coming off a year in which he sat out three months and two majors to allow left leg injuries to fully heal. Halfway through the season, he has won those same three tournaments, so perhaps he is headed toward another year like 2009.
“Well, I had a good year that year. I think I won six times that year. That would be nice if I could get that same total,” Woods said, pausing to smile before adding, “with a couple of majors in there.”
Therein lies the difference — and the challenge.
It’s all about the majors, isn’t it?
PGA Tour events should not be dismissed. Congressional was tougher than it was for the U.S. Open last year. An argument could be made that no other golf course on U.S. soil did a better job identifying who played the best that week. It was the 74th career win for Woods, moving him past Jack Nicklaus into second place, leaving him only eight tour wins short of Sam Snead’s record.
Even so, that’s one of the few times Woods and Nicklaus are mentioned together when the topic is not major championships.
Majors are said to be the toughest to win, though that can be debated. The conditions tend to be so extreme they expose and eliminate those who don’t have full control of their game and their emotions. That’s what Phil Mickelson suggested in 2001 at the PGA Championship when he was frustrated by not having won a major at that point in his career, and Adam Scott raised the same point early last week at Congressional.
“I still think majors are every good player’s best opportunity to win a tournament,” Scott said.
The next stop for Woods is Royal Lytham & St. Annes, but not before he heads to The Greenbrier Classic this week in West Virginia.
The odds makers have installed Woods as the favorite for the British Open, just as they did for the Masters and the U.S. Open. And it’s still a good bet. Luke Donald remains No. 1 in the world, with Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood not far behind. Even with his win at Congressional, Woods stayed at No. 4 in the world. That’s only because of the math, and the fact the world ranking is based on two years instead of what happened yesterday, or even the last three months.
No matter. The score that will get everyone’s attention at Lytham will belong to Woods.