Tiger Woods' Understanding of Oak Hill Is a PGA Championship Advantage

After watching Tiger Woods win the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last weekend, it’s clear that the golf veteran has a great understanding of his strengths and weaknesses heading into this week’s PGA Championship from Oak Hill Country Club.

Woods also has an innate understanding of the course itself and told Bob Harig of ESPN.com about how fast the course is playing and how it compares to last year’s event:

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They have definitely got the speed up. I think there are close to 11-plus (on the green speed device known as a Stimpmeter). They have picked up a couple feet, easily, and I'm sure they are going to dry them out and roll them a little bit more and get a little bit more speed out of them.

It's going to be a great test. There's not a lot of base to it. Obviously the greens have a little bit of sand underneath, but balls aren't ripping back because of that. They are just kind of digging in, so it's a little different than we played last year. But that's all feel and understanding. That's one of the reasons why I went around yesterday and chipped and putted so much, was to get a little bit more feel for that. I'll do more of that today and tomorrow.

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While five victories this season should have the momentum securely on the side of Woods heading into the year’s final major, it will be Woods’ focus on how Oak Hill will play over the course of a four-day tournament that will put him in a position to win.

For the 11 years Tiger utterly dominated the sport—he won 14 majors from 1997 to 2008—he knew the nuances of every course and was meticulous in finding out exactly how each hole would play.

What made Woods leaps-and-bounds better than the rest of the field was his ability to know his surroundings and comprehend how to make the most out of each shot he took.

Not only is Woods red hot with a win coming into this week’s PGA Championship (British Open winner Phil Mickelson grabbed the Claret Jug just one week after winning the Scottish Open), but the way he speaks about the conditions of Oak Hill proves he has studied the venue extensively.

Woods has four previous wins in the PGA Championship—1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007—and in each of those years, he won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational as well.

The writing is on the wall for another major victory.

With Woods carrying serious momentum into Oak Hill and his thorough understanding of the course, there has never been a better chance to add another major to his resume than this week at the PGA Championship.

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