Sullen Woods on a mission

:HIS ALARM call may have come with the dawn chorus, given his propensity to get his practice rounds completed before the majority of spectators get through the entrance gates, but you had to wonder if Tiger Woods had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed yesterday.

Maybe his record of 14 Major wins, three of them coming in the British Open, entitles him to a somewhat holier-than-thou attitude. Certainly, in this latest offering of the traditional pre-championship press conference here at Royal Lytham and St Annes, there was an element of sanctimonious posturing as he fielded questions which ranged from A to Z and focused quite a lot on the “W” word, winning.

Question: “You could be back to world number one on Sunday. Are you surprised, given where you were late last year, that it’s come around so quickly, that chance?

Answer: “No. Help you out?”

Another one.

Question: “You’ve used the word process to describe the remaking of your swing. If a process has a beginning, middle and end, where are you now in that process?”

Answer: “Somewhere in it. Did that help you out?”

Follow-up question: “More the end than the middle?”

Answer: “I don’t know. When I’m all said and done with my career, I’ll know. But right now, I’m in it. I’m just trying to get better each and every day. And that’s something that is the process . . that I’m working on my game. And I like the things that Sean (Foley) and I are working on, and they’re starting to solidify.”

Question: “There seems to have been a much bigger differential between the highs and lows of your performances this season . . . can you tell us why you think that is the case?”

Answer: “If I knew the answer I’d tell you, but I don’t . . .  I’m just trying to get better, get more consistent. And that’s something I’m looking forward to in the future.”

Tiger was in a right old mood, that’s for sure. But, then, his performances this season – three wins on the US Tour, most recently at his own ATT National tournament at Congressional – have made for a quite spectacular bounce-back campaign for Woods, who was ranked 20th in the world at this corresponding point of the season a year ago. He is back up to number four, and a win here would see him resume that top spot once again.

But, then, world rankings – to Woods – are symbolic more than anything.

What really matters, and this has never changed, is that ongoing quest for Majors.

Stuck on 14 since his US Open win at Torrey Pines in 2008, there is a sense that, even with all his injuries and personal travails, another one is overdue.

But when? Where?

Yesterday, Woods explained his reasoning behind why it is tougher – for him – to win and why so many first-time Major winners have emerged in the last four years.

“The fields are deeper, there is no doubt,” observed Woods, adding: “I think there are more guys now who have a chance to win Major championships than ever before, and I think that will just continue to be that way. What have we now, 15 (first-timers) in a row? It just goes to show you the depth of the field.”

Woods has pretty much bombed in the first two Majors of the season. In the Masters at Augusta, he arrived on the back of a win in the Bay Hill Invitational and fell to a mediocre 40th-place finish. In the US Open at the Olympic club, he arrived with the Memorial tournament title in his back pocket and was a distant tied-21st. This time, he has come into the British Open on the back of a missed cut at the Greenbrier Classic, having won the ATT the previous week. Highs and lows. Untypical Woods.

What will we get here?

The graph, it would seem, is on an upward curve again. He has returned to the top of the US Tour’s FedEx Cup standings and, with three tournament wins on his CV this season, has won more times than any other player. Maybe the superior attitude conveyed to a packed media room was understandable after all.

The man is on a mission.

“I feel like everything’s headed towards Thursday (the first round) and I’m looking forward to it.”

One more question. “It’s now four years since you won your last Major title. Do you feel a sense of anxiety over when or if the next one is coming?”

Answer: “No, no. I just try and put myself there. I think that if I continue putting myself there enough times then I’ll win Major championships.”