Tiger Woods: Golf's Living Legend Must be Favorite to Win the Open Championship

Tiger Woods has to be the favorite to win this year's Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St. Annes after winning the AT&T National—his third tournament of the year.

He now leads the PGA Tour in that category, and the future looks even brighter for golf's living legend. 

On a side note, Woods' latest victory—his 74th—vaulted him over Jack Nicklaus in the career wins category. He now owns sole possession of second place all time, and it won't be long before he takes the top spot from Sam Snead, who won 82 tournaments over the course of his Hall-of-Fame career.

Woods' game has slowly been rounding into form over the last year or so. He's been tinkering with the third major swing change of his career, one that he hopes will help him play the game for a long time after his body started rejecting his old body-wrenching power swing. 

Woods' old swing caused an immense amount of torque on his joints, especially his knees. Nowadays, he's swinging much easier, and he barely moves his feet from start to finish. It's a swing that will preserve his body to play the game for a long, long time to come.

So far, the results have been mixed, but the overall trajectory has been consistently heading in the right direction. I've been noticing a change not only in his swing (which is more relaxed and easier than I've ever seen, unless he's got a driver in hand) but also in his confidence.

People thought that Woods was full of it after the U.S. Open when he said he had some positives to take from the tournament. They wrongly assumed he was just doing damage control in a bad situation, but I saw the same things Woods spoke about after his final round: He continued to improve his ball striking and putting, even at the end when the tournament was well out of reach.

Then, he turned right around and won the next tournament he entered—a pretty prestigious one, at that.

His final iron shot of the day on the 72nd hole was a thing of beauty. He hit a nine iron 191 yards—a smooth stroke that took off like a bullet and drew right where he wanted it.  I knew it was good before we ever saw it land because of the way Woods started walking after the ball was struck. He knew it was pure.

Woods was so high above everyone else at the time of his fall from grace that it's taken three years to get back to base camp one, so to speak. He's not at the pinnacle yet, but he's slowly working his way back to the summit.

His game is continually improving, and after his rebound win at Congressional, there isn't another golfer in the world I'd put above him to win this year's Open Championship. 

It would be foolish to proclaim him the victor at this point, but it would also be foolish to count him out. Woods is going to be the heavy favorite to win, and if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Tiger over the field to win major championship No. 15.

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