Tiger Woods insists he is making “big strides” in his game and is feeling confident heading into the PGA Championships after an encouraging finish to the Quicken Loans National on Sunday.
Woods signed off in Gainsville, Virginia with a 68 to finish the tournament at 8-under, and while he was unable to trouble the leaders his scores of 68-64-74-68 are only the second time this season he has recorded three rounds in the 60s.
The world No 266 is not eligible for this week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational and now has 10 days to prepare before the start of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
Woods said: “The whole week in general, I felt like I made some big strides. This is much better, much, much, much better to have a round like today and basically yesterday.
“Even though I struggled as bad as I did (Saturday), one thing has been missing, as I’ve been trying to explain to everyone, trying to make an up-and-down here and there, scramble and turn an awful round into a scoring round.
“The first seven holes yesterday I was slapping it all over the place and struggling for par. I had that shot at eight to turn my whole round around and get it in the right direction. I didn’t do it. But today I did, which was nice.”
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There were some signs of the old Tiger magic on Sunday at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, including a remarkable recovery shot on the 12th. He produced a stunning iron shot from thick grass on the downslope of a hill, partially guarded by trees to find the back of the hole and salvage a bogey.
He had earlier made five birdies in the first 10 holes, and after bogies on 11, 12 and 14 completed his scoring with a sixth birdie at 17.
Woods, who hit 11 of 14 fairways in regulation, 15 of 18 greens and needed just 29 putts, added: “My short game is starting to come back to where it used to be.
“Everything is kind of trending in the correct direction now.”
