• US PGA Championship

Return to health the key to victory - Woods

Tiger Woods made his return to the course at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last week © Getty Images

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Former world No. 1 Tiger Woods believes his ongoing injury woes are finally behind him as he sets his sights on returning to the pinnacle of golf, starting at the US PGA Championship this week.

Woods has not won a PGA tournament in 23 months, a time during which the American has endured a terrible run of injuries including a strained medial ligament and an Achilles tendon complaint. Now, the 14-time major winner says, his body is willing and able to withstand the rigours of his dynamic swing.

"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."

"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."

Woods' physical improvement, he says, has enabled him to adopt a refreshed mental approach heading into the final major of 2011. After feeling "frustrated" while playing through pain at this year's Masters, and having to withdraw from The Players Championship altogether, the 35-year-old will call upon his renewed sense of enthusiasm at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

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

"My feels are starting to come back. I've been away from the game for a while, but I'm starting to get the feel of hitting shots and how far the ball is going and just getting that more and more target awareness that just comes from just playing in tournament golf."

"This is a major, and this is the fun part. I can feel the rush of a major championship again," he said.

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