Sports Then and Now

Despite a self-proclaimed return to health, Tiger Woods has not yet found a return to form.

Tiger Woods blames his alarming slide down the golf world rankings on his health, and says he feels better now than he has for a long time. The former world number one has undoubtedly had his problems over the last few years, with a knee injury the most recent issue he has faced.

Woods believes that now he is finally over his injuries, he will be able to concentrate on his golf, and getting back to his best. However, he isn’t off to a great start in his return after finishing 18 strokes back last week at the Bridgestone Invitational and then shooting an opening round 77 to make it likely that he will miss the cut at the PGA Championship.

“In order to win, I had to be healthy,” Woods said. “That’s what we’re trying to get to. Now I can go, now I can do the work.

“I can do the practice sessions, and I think that that’s the only way that my game will get to where I need to get to.”

Woods says that he is delighted to be back playing, and hopes that his injury problems have been put behind him.

He admits there have been times when he has played despite being injured, and knows that it has affected his game.

“I haven’t been (healthy) in a while, so that’s something I’m very excited about finally, that I can come out here and just play and have fun again.

“As I said, I was always trying to block out pain. That’s not a lot of fun to play through that.

“It’s nice to have a kind of bounce in my step again and walk around these hills and not have to worry about hills.”

One criticism that has been aimed at Woods by those looking at Bet365 Free Bets has been his lack of patience on the golf course when things are not going so well.

He believes that it is inevitable that his temper would be frayed while injuries were hampering him, but says being fit and healthy will coincide with a more relaxed Tiger Woods.

“Now that I’m healthy,” Woods said, ” it’s so much easier to be more patient because I feel good.”

“I have way more energy because I’m not trying to block out pain and trying to ignore that.  I can just go out there and just play golf.”