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Positive Woods still fighting swing demons

Tiger Woods is still striving for consistency in his game © PA Photos

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Tiger Woods has admitted he is still fighting with his swing, but is happy with his fitness and form ahead of this week's US PGA Championship.

Woods made his return to competitive action for the first time since May at the Bridgestone Invitational, but he looked rusty over the course of the four days at Firestone.

There were flashes of quality mixed in with sloppy passages of play and the swing changes he is working on with coach Sean Foley are a work in progress. A positive for Woods was that he did not look hampered by the knee and Achilles problems that sidelined him through the summer.

The former world No. 1 has just three practice days ahead of the PGA Championship and is aware it will be a tough ask to mount a challenge, but feels he is on an upward curve once again.

"I had it in spurts this week," Woods said after closing with three birdies in his final four holes. "I hit it really well, and then I'd lose it and get it back.

"I'm still struggling with my alignment and trusting the fact that the ball doesn't shape as much as it used to. I don't cut the ball as much, I don't draw the ball as much, the pattern is much tighter. It's weird when I look up the fairway or look at the flags; I'm used to seeing the ball move a lot more in my lines, so I'm still fiddling with that.

"I'm compressing the golf ball. My angles are better, and the deviation is less. But I have a hard time when I get out there because what my feel says is for the ball to shape that much, and it doesn't, and then I start fighting it.

"So it's nice for me to get out there in this competitive atmosphere no matter how I was playing just to figure out how to score because I haven't been forced to score.

"I've just got to keep playing. It's just something that comes over time of just playing and getting the feel for it."

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