Everything’s different for Tiger Woods as he returns to the scene of his last Open Championship win this week except the reason for actually being here.
“First” was Woods’ immediate and unequivocal answer to being asked what would be “an acceptable finish” for him this week, this despite no Claret Jugs here at Hoylake since 2006, no majors since 2008, just three months removed from major back surgery with two rounds of competitive play since the operation.
This despite him also saying the competition gets tougher every year, because the fields are deeper, the margins are smaller, his rivals bigger, stronger and more athletic.
“It’s always the case,” he added when pressed on whether he really believed that anything less than the “W” would be acceptable this week.
“I’ve been in circumstances like this before,” he continued.
“I had knee surgery in 2008 right after the Masters, I didn’t play more than nine holes before the US Open and was able to win it in a play-off.
“I’ve proven I can do it, it’s just a matter of giving myself the best chances this week, missing the ball in the correct spots, to be aggressive when I can and obviously to hole putts.”
That was then, and it was undeniably remarkable. In 2008 when Tiger said he could win with a leg hanging off, you believed him. But as he noted himself at various points, it’s very different now, and this was a different injury.
“When my knee was bad, I could still swing a club,” he said.
“It was going to hurt a lot, but I could do it.With the back, I couldn’t do anything. I could barely get out of bed, I couldn’t move about the house.
“That’s why after the surgery, when I didn’t have the pain anymore, there was such a relief. It was a matter of time before I could get strong, more stable, work on my explosiveness through the ball.”
“Every week I’ve gotten stronger and faster. Probably not quite at the level that I think I can be but pretty darn close.”
Still, most players who have undergone this tricky procedure to clear a trapped nerve, many as fit and much younger than Woods, have had far longer than three months before they felt able to commit full-out to a swing.
Tiger seems to believe he’s ready to win now, after two knockabout rounds in the Quicken Loans National, the tournament he runs on the PGA Tour.
It’s a considerable leap of faith even for this man, possibly the most driven individual in modern sporting history. So why the haste to return at Hoylake? Perhaps we got a clue from his reminiscences of 2006.
“My life has certainly changed a lot since then,” he continued, referencing fatherhood, personal turmoil, divorce and all the rest.
“That was an emotional week, and it feels great to come back here, it meant a lot to me in my life at the time.
“I’d pressed hard at Augusta because it was the last time my dad would see me play in a major and then I missed the cut pretty miserably at the US Open.
“Then I came here and just felt at peace. It was surreal. On Sunday I really felt calm out there. I felt that my dad was with me on that round.
“I felt the same peace in 1997 at Augusta, in 2000 at both the US Open and Open. If I knew (how to get that feeling), I’d do it all the time.”
Yet it’s all very different from that this week.
“This is a different golf course than we played in 2006,” he said. “Then it was hot, the ball was flying, it was dusty.
“We’re making ball marks on the greens now. On Sunday the ball was checking, it played longer.
“I’ve played three different practice rounds now and had three different winds. And there are a couple of changes they’ve made.”
Despite the emotions of 2006, Tiger’s a much mellower kind of character now although not exactly hail-fellow-well-met to all and sundry.
In his 2006 victory press conference, in the midst of all the joy and emotion, he still gave the patented Tiger death stare to a questioner who persisted in asking him what he would drink out of the Claret Jug he’d just won.
Eight years later, he admits it’s a much more fun trophy to have than even the Augusta green jacket, when both are used as intended.
“More people want to take a drink out of the jug,” he said.
“People want to take pictures of you in the green jacket but everyone wants to slam back a couple out of the jug.”