Woods buzz rife ahead of PGA C'ship

TULSA • Tiger Woods excited spectators and rivals alike with a back-nine practice round on Monday at Southern Hills, continuing his comeback from severe leg injuries before the PGA Championship, which starts tomorrow.

Woods, whose incredible return at last month's Masters came only 14 months after a car crash, brought a similar buzz to the roars he created at Augusta National.

"Just watching him at the Masters, that was unreal, just the crowds and what it does to a tournament when he tees it up," said Norway's Viktor Hovland.

"Just getting used to big crowds, loud crowds."

Woods played the front nine on Sunday and said his surgically repaired right leg - held together with pins, rods and screws - feels stronger than it did a month ago.

"I'm excited," he told reporters. "I'm not going to play that much going forward, so any time I do play, it's going to be fun."

He made the cut at the Masters but battled through pain simply to walk 72 holes and faded to his worst Augusta rounds of 78, the 15-time Major winner calling the effort to finish four rounds among his greatest feats.

The former world No. 1, now ranked 818th, won the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, although the course underwent an US$11 million (S$15.3 million) revamp in 2018.

If his body has the strength and stamina to walk 72 holes, his skill could make him a major threat.

"If there's ever a question if Tiger can contend, we can all just kind of chuckle at that. Never is he going to be in a field where he can't contend," home-state hero Talor Gooch said.

"He might not have as good of odds in some places but I think as long as he's in the field, if he ever gets it slotted, no matter how old he is, no matter what's going on, he's always going to have a chance.

"I mean, it's Tiger Woods."

Woods, 46, is seeking his 16th Major title, two shy of the record set by Jack Nicklaus, and an 83rd US PGA Tour triumph, which would break the all-time record he now shares with Sam Snead.

"When Tiger is in the field... there's just a different energy," Gooch added. "Every time he's in the same field, you just cherish it. We all know what he's been through."

Phil Mickelson, who became golf's oldest Major winner last year when he won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island at age 50, withdrew from the event last Friday. It is only the fourth time in the past half-century a Major winner will not defend his crown.

Mickelson has not played since controversial comments about the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series in February, the six-time Major winner calling the Saudis "scary" with a "horrible record on human rights". But he said he was willing to deal with them in order to gain leverage to "reshape" the PGA Tour. He later apologised and took a break from golf.

According to a report on Monday, Nicklaus turned down an offer worth over US$100 million to be the face of the LIV Golf Series. He said in an article on the Fire Pit Collective that organisers of the series asked him to spearhead the big-money circuit.

"I was offered something in excess of US$100 million by the Saudis, to do the job probably similar to the one that Greg (Norman) is doing," Nicklaus said.

"I turned it down. Once verbally, once in writing."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS