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SAN DIEGO, California: Tiger Woods had a message
Tuesday for anyone speculating that knee surgery and a near
nine-week lay off have left him less than ready for the US Open golf
championship.
“I’m good to go,” the world
No.1 said Tuesday. “Come game time Thursday, I’ll be ready.”
Woods has won six Buick
Invitational titles at Torrey Pines, where the 108th US Open golf
championship tees off on Thursday on a South course measuring 7,643
yards and playing at par-71.
While June conditions, and the
typical US Golf Association (USGA) set up for an Open promise to
make the course even tougher than the one players see in the January
US PGA Tour event, Woods indicated that one thing he doesn’t
expect to be a factor is his knee.
“Is it fully recovered?
Probably not,” he said, admitting that he hadn’t walked 18 holes
on any course since his runner-up finish to Trevor Immelman at the
Masters in April.
Shortly after that defeat, which
ended his vaunted bid for a calendar Grand Slam before it even
started, Woods had arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage damage
in his knee.
Woods acknowledged that it
wasn’t until the week of the Memorial, where he had hoped to make
his competitive return on May 29 to June 1, that he was sure he
would be able to play the US Open.
“The week prior to Memorial, I
was not feeling good enough where I was 100 percent sure I could
play all four days,” he said. “But then my leg started getting a
lot better quickly, which was great. My lifting went way up. My
endurance came back. All the different things started coming up.”
The USGA has done its best to
insure an early adrenaline rush, pairing Woods with world No.2 Phil
Mickelson and No.3 Adam Scott of Australia in the first two rounds.
Their group, which tees off at
8:06 a.m. (15:06 GMT) on Thursday, promises to draw a massive
gallery primed for fireworks.
So sore knee or no, 13-time major
champion Woods appeared poised to resume his assault on Jack
Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles.
While Woods’s resume includes
just two US Open crowns—compared to four Masters Green Jackets,
four US PGA Championships and three British Open titles—Woods said
the US championship offered plenty off opportunity to gain on
Nicklaus.
“I’ve come closer, I think,
in more Opens,” said Woods, who finished tied for third in 1999,
second in 2005 and tied for second last year at Oakmont. “I’ve
had a lot of high finishes in US Opens.”
--AFP
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