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Woods last played tournament golf on 9 March. Lynne Sladky
roaring back

'I still think Tiger can beat Jack's record' - Pádraig Harrington

The three-time Major winner recalls Woods’ best ever golfing performance, at The Open in 2006.

TIGER WOODS REMAINS hopeful that he will return to golf in time to take part in The Open at Hoylake in July. The former world number one last captured the Claret Jug at the Liverpool golf course in 2006. 

Three-time Major winner Pádraig Harrington told TheScore.ie about Woods’ mastery of Hoylake and the finest four rounds of golf he has ever witnessed from the American.

“Very rarely would you see a golf course as fast as Hoylake. Even when you were putting the golf club on the ground it was slipping. You were afraid of hitting the ball every time you addressed it. Nobody could have played [the course] the way Tiger did. That was the best golf Tiger Woods ever played.

“[He was] laying up out of all the trouble. We were struggling to stop a nine iron on the green and he was doing it with a five iron. It was phenomenal the way he played. Nobody could have competed the way he did… it was the best, by a long way, I’ve ever seen him.

“It was a distinctly different way of playing. We were all put under so much pressure by the golf course whereas he played it his own way.”

RLGCHoylake / YouTube

Harrington continued, “Pebble Beach [the 2000 US Open that Woods won by 15 strokes] was different. Pebble was great golf but Hoylake was phenomenal. I’d say he was never out of position. Pebble was swashbuckling; a totally different way of playing.

“Hoylake, you can’t believe. It was like playing down the road and trying not to find a bunker. The way he played it, it was defensive. I said it was the best way but it was a different way he played.”

He commented, “While at Pebble, the scoring was unbelievable. We tend to remember him hitting from the rough at the sixth, up the hill. It was much more free-flowing when compared to Hoylake.”

Harrington believes there are two ways of looking at Woods’ injury woes and his fading chances of ever ecklising Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 Majors. The 14-time Major winner could, he said, return to the game with a renewed sense of vigor, like Jose-Maria Olazabal did in the late 1990s, or that injuries take their toll and dull his game.

I still think he can beat Jack’s record but he doesn’t want to keep having injuries. Time is not running out but it is starting to shorten a bit. Certainly, having a break will keep him motivated.”

“I’m biased because I competed in his era,” said Harrington. “Yeah, he’s the greatest golfer to ever play the game but I didn’t compete with Jack… You know what? It would probably be nice if he just matched it.”

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