GOLF DIGEST: US TOUR:Tiger Woods insists he is close to contending on a weekly basis, even if recent results suggest otherwise.

“I think I’m headed in the right direction,” Woods said at Congressional Country Club, where he was promoting the ATT National which takes place from June 28th to July 1st.

“I’m going to try and continue to improve in incremental steps in every facet of my game and try to make every facet of my game more efficient.”

Woods has one PGA Tour victory this year, but his game has hit a slump recently with a missed cut in Charlotte as well as 40th-place finishes at The Masters and Players Championship.

“I’ve just played three events – I won a tournament (four) tournaments ago,” Woods said.

“If I get more efficient at what I’m doing, then I’m going to win golf tournaments.”

Woods won at Congressional in 2009 before the event moved to suburban Philadelphia to make way for last year’s US Open.

Injury prevented Woods from participating in an event won by Rory McIlroy.

“Unfortunately, I was in a position where I couldn’t play and it was tough because I missed out on a golf course I know, that I’ve won on and that I love,” Woods said. “Those factors made it difficult to sit back and watch. What Rory did was extraordinary. He played some beautiful golf.”

McIlroy dominated Congressional, finishing at 16 under. He is not among the early commitments for the ATT National, but Woods, past tournament champions Nick Watney, Justin Rose and KJ Choi will play in the €5.12 million event.

BRITISH OPEN QUALIFYING:American rookie professional Harris English will never forget how he qualified for his first British Open. Eight months after playing in the Walker Cup in Aberdeen the 22-year-old from Georgia booked his place at Royal Lytham in July with rounds of 60 and 63 in the international qualifier in Texas.

He beat England’s Greg Owen by four shots as eight spots were secured. English’s round included six successive birdies in a front nine 29 and he later told the Open website: “I kind of lost track of how many I made. I was relaxed. I had some fun. I was striking the ball really well. In fact, I was doing everything really well.

“I knew the wind wasn’t going to be blowing, so I knew the scores were going to be low. I couldn’t let up. I decided to keep the pedal to the metal on the last 18 holes, where I left myself in really good position to make putts.

“It’s awesome. I told my parents and my agent that I really, really wanted to play in the British Open, so I came here today with that goal – and here I go.”

Owen, who had an albatross and led for a while the last time the British Open was at Lytham in 2001, added an afternoon 61 to his opening 66 to finish 13 under par.

Joint third on 10 under were Canadian Stephen Ames, Argentina’s Andres Romero, who led with two holes to play at Carnoustie in 2007, and American Justin Hicks.

A play-off for the last three spots was determined by a play-off involving Americans James Driscoll and Bob Estes, Sweden’s Daniel Chopra and Scot Russell Knox.

Estes birdied the first, while a pair of pars at the short 17th was good enough for Driscoll and Chopra.

Among those to miss out was Swede Henrik Stenson, twice third in the last four years, and Londoner Brian Davis.