Albany, Bahamas …
Tiger Woods is quietly-confident he could be fit enough to claim victory in the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie.
Woods still has to successfully battle his way through this week’s long overdue return to golf in hosting Thursday’s starting Hero World Challenge at the exclusive club at Albany in the Bahamas.
Bizarrely, it is the third year in succession Woods is making the Bahamas event his return to official competition following a long injury lay-off, and with latest the first tournament with a scorecard in his back pocket since January’s Dubai Desert Classic before undergoing fusion surgery on his spine mid-April.
And while Woods is focussed no further than this week’s elite 18-player and no-cut tournament, he expressed a delight in being able to hopefully include the 2018 Open and also talking in what would be a fourth Open win and his first since the emotional scenes in 2006 at Royal Liverpool.
Tiger Woods at the 2007 Open at Carnoustie
Scotland will always have a special place in Woods heart as he made his European Tour debut in the 1995 Scottish Open at Carnoustie as the then reigning U.S. Amateur and a week later journeyed to St. Andrews to contest his first Open.
“I’d love to play Carnoustie again as I played there in the Scottish Open in 1995 and in 1999 in the Open,” he said.
“I recall making just one birdie on the weekend and finished three or four out of the play-off.
“Carnoustie can be a brutal golf course and it was brutal that year. I played when Paddy (Padraig Harrington) won in ‘08 but I just love that golf course.
“It’s just so tough, but it’s all there in front of you. There are no tricks, there’s nothing hidden.
“It’s just ‘come get me.’ This one is the by far the hardest of all the courses on the Open rota.
“I won two of my Open Championship’s in Scotland and one other in England so let’s try and add another one in there.”
Woods is returning to competition at first a first occasion since withdrawing ahead of the second round in January’s Dubai Desert Classic and then undergoing fusion surgery mid-April on his spine.
