US Open Golf 2012: Tiger Woods Poised to Win First Major Since Torrey Pines

Tiger Woods is poised to win his first major tournament since the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines when he takes to the Olympic Club course this Thursday in pursuit of his fourth career US Open championship.

Woods' dominant performance at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio last week proves that he has his mind clear and his swing down. 

Though Rory McIlroy is the defending champion of the US Open, he hardly boasts the resume that Woods does. A 14-time major winner, Tiger is still just 36 and hungry to prove himself on golf's grandest stage. 

The last time Woods won a major tournament was four years ago at the US Open, when he outlasted Rocco Mediate in a sudden-death playoff hole after the two tied the initial 18-hole playoff.

That was before Thanksgiving 2009, when Woods' marital infidelities were made public and his life was turned upside down. 

Since last winning in San Diego back in June 2008, Woods has struggled to get back to old form at major tournaments. Since the start of the 2010 season, Woods has never finished better than tied for fourth in any of the four major championships. After tying for fourth at the 2011 Masters, Woods did not play the 2011 US Open or the 2011 Open Championship.

Woods' latest major outings have been equally as disappointing however, as he failed to even make the cut at the 2011 PGA Championship and finished tied for 40th at the 2012 Masters. 

The struggles have to end sometime for Tiger though, don't they?

He finally broke through in 2012 back in March, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Last week was Woods' second first place finish of the season, and it certainly could not have come at a better time as the 2012 US Open gets set to begin from the Olympic Club in San Francisco. 

Before 2012, Woods had zero wins in 27 tries from the start of 2010 to the end of 2011. Woods went more than two years without winning a single event. But already in the span of less than three months Tiger has two tour wins. 

Momentum is a powerful thing in sports, and Tiger certainly has it on his side heading into the season's second major tournament. 

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