Tiger Woods is in good spirits ahead of The Open. In Ireland, he revealed how he’s doing health-wise

An extraordinary quality of golf converged on the J.P. McManus Pro-Am charity tournament at Adare Manor, Ireland, in early July. Among the world’s top aces was Tiger Woods, who is carefully preparing for his third major tournament of the season, the 150th edition of The Open.

That for most of his long career the biggest crowd of any group of fans on the course has been chasing the golf ball is no surprise. But in recent months, people aren’t looking so much at whether he’ll notch up another big triumph. Far more attention is focused on his injured leg and his health.

This was also a theme at the last tournament in Ireland, which was in the charity spirit. In addition to Woods, world number one Scottie Scheffler, home favourite Rory McIlroy and the late Beijing Olympic champion Xander Schauffele were on the course.

Nearly 35,000 spectators watched the entertaining show, many of them, of course, coming to the course for Tiger Woods. After all, seeing this golf legend on the European continent is a very rare event.

PREPARING FOR THE OPEN

In a way, the J.P. McManus Pro-Am can be seen as an ideal preparation for The Open. As the tournament is part of the DP World Tour calendar, no points are awarded. In addition, golfers can use golf carts, which came in very handy for Tiger Woods in particular.

The last time the former undefeated world number one played in his second major was the PGA Championship, but he withdrew due to severe pain in his injured leg from last year’s car accident. He later admitted that he also wanted to save his strength for The Open.

Not only The Open, but also the Irish J.P. McManus Pro-Am had been on Tiger’s calendar before. Not to disappoint his fans who look forward to these events, he also skipped the recent US Open.

“Theplan was to play the US Open as well, but physically I couldn’t make it. There was no chance for me to make it. My foot problems would have jeopardised this tournament as well as The Open and it was not worth risking it,” Woods confided at the tournament in Ireland, whose words were quoted by the GolfExtra website.

“I don’t know, not really. If you had asked me last year if I would still be playing golf, all my surgeons would have said no,” he replied convincingly.

But he is equally aware that he probably won’t be able to play at the top level for as long as he would if his leg was completely fine. Moreover, he has previously undergone several back operations, the pain of which has limited him considerably in recent years.

However, he looks as ready as he can be for his third major of the season, and most importantly, he is optimistic. Fans will be hoping to see him play a full four rounds of 72 holes in two weeks at St. Andrews.

Source:: GolfExtra.cz