Tiger Woods discussed his major hopes at Valhalla, the possibility of Ryder Cup captaincy and the PGA Tour's ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund ahead of the PGA Championship; Watch the first round live on Thursday from 1pm on Sky Sports Golf
Wednesday 15 May 2024 16:21, UK
Tiger Woods has vowed he can still challenge for a historic 16th major title at this week’s PGA Championship, despite admitting his game isn’t as sharp as he would like.
Woods is a four-time winner of the Wanamaker Trophy, including during the 2000 edition at Valhalla as part of the infamous 'Tiger Slam', although he has played a limited competitive schedule in recent years due to injury.
The former world No 1 made a record-breaking 24th consecutive cut at The Masters last month before finishing last of those who made it through to the weekend, with the event being just the fourth time since November 2020 that Woods has completed all four rounds of a tournament.
Woods said at Augusta National that he intended to complete a full major schedule this year, which hasn't happened since 2019, with the 48-year-old now looking to take the positives from his appearance at The Masters into his latest appearance.
"I still feel that I can win golf tournaments," Woods told the media on Tuesday. "I still feel I can hit the shots and still feel like I still have my hand around the greens and I can putt. I just need to do it for all four days, not like I did at Augusta for only two.
"It's getting around that is more of the difficulty that I face day-to-day and the recovery of pushing myself either in practice or in competition days. You saw it at Augusta - I was there after two days and didn't do very well on the weekend."
Woods was seen practicing at Valhalla on Sunday before playing nine holes on both Monday and Tuesday, with the world No 807 confident he will be able to cope with the physical demands of a long and challenging golf course.
"My body's okay," Woods said. "It is what it is. I wish my game was a little bit sharper. Again, I don't have a lot of competitive reps, so I am having to rely on my practice sessions and getting stuff done either at home or here on-site.
"At the end of the day, I need to be ready mentally and physically come Thursday. One of the reasons I came up here on Sunday was to knock off some of the work that I have to do in charting greens, get all that stuff done early, so I can focus on literally playing and plotting my way around.
"I wouldn't say the walk is that difficult. I know it's a long walk, it's a big piece of property. This is a big golf course and if you get in the rough here, yeah, things could get a little bit sore, but if I drive it well and do the things I need to do and what I did 24 years ago and hopefully it works."
Woods has been heavily linked as a future Ryder Cup captain, having made eight appearances for Team USA and also previously been a vice-captain at Hazeltine in 2016, and revealed last month he was in discussions with the PGA of America.
Team USA have still not announced who will serve as captain for the next edition in New York, with Woods - who is also heavily involved in the PGA Tour's discussions with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund - hinted he was still unsure whether he will be able to commit to captaincy.
"We're still talking," Woods explained. "There's nothing that has been confirmed yet. We're still working on what that might look like. Also whether or not I have the time to do it.
"I'm dedicating so much of my time to what we're doing with the PGA Tour, I don't want to not fulfil the role of the captaincy if I can't do it. What that all entails and the commitments to the PGA of America, the players, and the fans and all of Team USA. I need to feel that I can give the amount of time that it deserves."
On how talks are ongoing to finalising the Framework Agreement announced last June, Woods added: "I think the fans are probably as tired as we are of the talk of not being about the game of golf and about not being about the players.
"It's about what LIV is doing, what we're doing, players coming back, players leaving, the fans just want to see us play together. How do we get there is to be determined. We made some progress, for sure, but there's a long way to go still."
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