Tiger back in hunt on familiar territory

The PGA Tour victories have returned and the new swing is starting to solidify but, as Tiger Woods takes aim at the British Open this week, there is still one major step to take.

It is four years since Woods won the US Open in that thrilling week at Torrey Pines that ended with a play-off victory over Rocco Mediate and took him to his 14th Major victory. An awful lot has happened since as the American’s game, fitness and personal life have undergone varying degrees of meltdown but this year has seen signs that the bold, adventurous golfer for the ages is almost back to his scintillating best.

After two winless seasons, this year has already seen three come in quick succession, at Bay Hill, the Memorial and most recently the AT&T National, taking his total number of career PGA Tour wins to 74.

That last one earlier this month at Congressional took the 36-year-old past Jack Nicklaus’s total and leaves only the late Sam Snead ahead of him on the all-time list at 82.

Nicklaus though, remains ahead of Tiger in the category that matters most, Major victories, but while the Bay Hill and more impressive Memorial wins came tantalisingly close to the Masters and US Open respectively, there was nothing in Woods’ game at either Augusta National or Olympic that suggested he was about to narrow the gap to Nicklaus’s all-time best 18 titles.

Will Royal Lytham & St Annes be any different?

“If I knew the answer I’d tell you, but I don’t,” Woods said yesterday.

“I just keep trying to work and keep trying to get better. And I’ve had a few wins this year, which is good.

“But also I’ve had a few poor performances, as well. So I’m just trying to get better, get more consistent. And that’s something I’m looking forward to in the future.”

How near or far into the future Woods was not prepared to speculate, as usual relying on his timeworn practice of describing his swing remodelling under coach Sean Foley as “the process”.

“When I’m done with my career, I’ll know. But right now I’m in it. And I’m just trying to get better each and every day. And that’s something that is the process, is that I’m working on my game, and I like the things that Sean and I are working on, and they’re starting to solidify.”

Still, Lytham would be an apt place to complete the process. The Lancashire links was the site of Silver Medal success as low amateur in 1996 and a week still fondly remembered by Woods as the moment when Stanford University undergraduate finally believed he had what it takes to turn professional.

“I got hot in that second round. I think I made seven birdies on an 11- or 12-hole stretch there. I think I posted 66 that day. At the time I tied Iain Pyman’s record for ‘low am’. And I thought that was a pretty great accomplishment.

“The Open Championship that year basically, I thought, pushed me towards turning pro versus going back to college. I was still kind of iffy about whether I should turn pro or not.

“But that gave me so much confidence that I could do it at a high level, I could shoot those scores and I could play against the top players in the world on a very difficult track. And later that summer I ended up winning the [US] Amateur.”

That was Woods’ third US Amateur title, he turned pro that autumn and the rest, as they say, is golfing history.

This week back at Lytham may go a long way to determining whether more chapters are about to be written.