Tiger Woods Returns, Ready to Win Again

Here are seven words many have been waiting to hear: Doctors gave Tiger Woods clearance to play.

In his first press conference since the AT&T National, Woods said he has been practicing for the last couple of weeks. He said he almost played last week, but the doctors told him to wait one more week. 

This contradicts information which has been tweeted by different individuals in recent weeks.

Perhaps Woods has done the right thing with his leg this time. He said he has not felt this good in years when he addressed the media after playing nine holes of practice at Firestone Country Club.

“The great thing is I don't feel a thing," he said. "It feels solid, it feels stable, no pain. As I said, that's one of the reasons why I took as long as I did to come back is that I want to get to this point where I can go ahead and start playing golf again like this."

"It's been a very long time, and it feels good to be able to go out there today and hit balls like this, go practice and feel nothing and walk around and pretty much do anything I want on the golf course.”

Woods said he started hitting drivers two to three weeks ago.

"I still haven't been in a competitive environment yet, so that's a totally different atmosphere as you know. But the shots felt very crisp, very clean,” he said. “I was very pleased. My start lines were good. They were nice and tight.”  

Woods said it was more frustrating to feel almost ready to play and not be able to play than to be completely injured.

“It gets a little more difficult when you get on that cusp and they start saying, you're pretty close to getting going,” he explained about the past few weeks.  “That's when it becomes a little more difficult is when you're itching to go and they're—you're borderline whether or not you should go or not.”

He has practiced for several weeks, doing a lot of chipping and short game work. He recently went to the longer clubs.

“I've been really working on trying to feel comfortable hitting the ball both ways and not favoring one or the other,” he explained about his practice sessions. “Primarily I feel of late I've been hitting it more solid and hitting it more flush than I have in the past. I think those are some of the things that [swing coach] Sean [Foley] and I have been working on are starting to click now and I am starting to really understand what he's trying to get me to do.”

Woods is sporting a new shoe which he hopes will help his Achilles tendons, both of which have been injured in years past. However, he was quick to point out that the Achilles injuries were due to torque on the knee and not footwear. 

“It was nice to try and get something that I felt comfortable in,” he explained about the shoes he is using now. “The Free technology is something that I wear every day, and some of the things, some of the aspects, I love training in it, I love running in it, lifting in it, so why can't I play golf in it."

"So eventually we got together and created this shoe, and walking out there on the golf course, it felt good to feel my foot activated, something that I hadn't felt in a long time. That felt very good, so the whole chain was activated, something that I'd always felt off the golf course but not on the golf course. “

Now he looks forward to being able to return to what he calls fun, which is pulling off golf shots when it matters most.

"Being there with a chance to win, whether you win or fail, just being there is just a rush, and it's just so much fun,” he added.