Last month, Tiger Woods was in exile with the chipping yips. Now he thinks he can win the Masters. “I want to win,” he said on his latest comeback. “The whole idea is to prepare and do that, and I feel like my game is finally ready to go and do that again.”
Given everything that’s happened over the last 12 months, from surgery onwards, if he does win on Sunday, where would it rank in the list of his achievements? “It would be my 15th major,” Woods said refusing as usual to get aboard the Hype Express. “We have a long way to go before that. We’ve got a lot of work. I’m excited to be back playing at this level. I feel like my game is finally ready to compete at this level, the highest level.”
How did he turn it around after the humiliation of a career worst 82 at the Phoenix Open in February? “I worked my ass off,” he said. “That’s the easiest way to kind to describe it. People would never understand how much work I put into it to come back and do this again. But it was sun-up to sun-down, and whenever I had free time; if the kids were asleep, I’d still be doing it, and then when they were in school, I’d still be doing it. So it was a lot of work.”
So, what motivates him most now that he is approaching 40? “Winning. I like it,” he said laughing.
