Tiger Woods hails positive putting progress ahead of The Open
Monday 2 July 2018 14:59, UK
Tiger Woods will head to Carnoustie with confidence restored in his putting after he earned a top-10 finish at the Quicken Loans National at TPC Potomac.
Woods matched the 21-birdie count of runaway winner Francesco Molinari over the week, although the tournament host littered his card with several more bogeys than the Italian as he closed on 11 under par - 10 strokes behind the champion.
The 14-time major winner switched to a mallet putter last week having endured problems on the greens in recent weeks, and he was pleased with the results despite missing a number of putts from inside 10 feet.
Woods ranked seventh in the Strokes Gained: Putting statistics, and he now feels far better about his chances of ending his 10-year wait for a 15th major title when he arrives at Carnousite for The 147th Open later this month.
"It feels good, even my bad putts still had the 'go in' look," said Woods after signing for a 66 on the final day at Avenel before presenting Molinari with the trophy following his impressive eight-under 62 which left him eight strokes clear of the field.
"That's something that I haven't had. When I was struggling there for a little bit, I couldn't even cheer for my good ones. But I'm starting to hit some putts. I'm starting to make those putts you're supposed to make from 10, 15 feet, but I'm also making some from outside 20.
"I haven't done that for the better part of two months, so that was nice to make over 100 feet of putts twice this week. That's a positive sign. I'm seeing the lines again, I'm rolling the ball on my line, I've got the speed and I really like the swing of this putter.
"The putts I missed, I hit a lot of good ones, which I don't mind because I hadn't been doing that for a while, so this was nice."
Woods will now spend time preparing for the challenge of one of the toughest links courses in the world, where extreme winds caused havoc among the world's best players when the 42-year-old first played The Open at Carnousite in 1999.
"Basically, I'm just trying to get efficient hitting the golf ball and then getting comfortable hitting the ball down," Woods added. "Carnoustie is an unbelievable driving golf course, you have to drive the ball well there, but it's a lot of different angles, so a lot of different crosswinds.
"I have to be able to manoeuvre the golf ball both ways there efficiently. You just have to hit the golf ball well. The year we played in '99, I think I made one birdie on the weekend. That was ridiculous how hard it was.
"I don't know if they're going to have it like that, but you just never know."
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