AUGUSTA, Ga. — When you’ve won 80 tournaments, 14 of them major championships and four of those Masters green jackets, you’re not likely lying awake in bed at night lamenting missed opportunities and wanting for more.
But Tiger Woods wants more.
He hasn’t won a major championship since 2008 and hasn’t won a Masters since 2005.
“I don’t really need to win again,’’ Woods said Tuesday. “I really want to.’’
A year ago at Augusta, where he finished tied for 32nd (his worst finish in 21 Masters), Woods still was in a feeling-out process with his health and his schedule.
That baby-steps period has now morphed into a sense of heightened expectation based on how well he played after last year’s Masters, contending at both the British Open (tie for sixth) and PGA Championship (runner-up) and winning the Tour Championship at the end of the season.
So now what?
“I feel like I can win,’’ the 43-year-old Woods said.
“I’ve proven that I can do it, and I put myself there with a chance to win the last two major championships of the year last year. I was right there and just needed to have a couple more things to go my way and not throw away a couple shots here and there, which I was able to do at East Lake (for the Tour Championship).
“I just feel like that I’ve improved a lot over the past 12, 14 months, but I’ve more than anything just proven to myself that I can play at this level again. I’ve worked my way back into one of the players that can win events.
“I know that I can play this golf course; I’ve had some success here.’’
That includes a practice-round visit last week, when Woods shot a 65 on Wednesday in a round in which he had a three-putt bogey on the first hole. That, of course, wasn’t in tournament conditions, but it was a score posted to boost his confidence for this week.
“I just wanted to do a quick scouting trip and get a feel for how this golf course is going to be playing … [and] I played well on top of that,’’ he said.
In Woods’ comeback tour, the elements to his game that have returned have been his swing speed and ball striking. What has lagged behind has been his putting. Woods no longer has that gene he used to have that allowed him to make every important putt he looked at.
“I feel I can still putt,’’ Woods said. “The hardest part is I just can’t practice like I used to. My back gets sore. I just can’t log in the time that I used to, and that goes with every part of my game. I’ve worked on my putting, and when I have, I’ve putted well. If I worked on my short game, I’ve chipped it well. You know, I just can’t do all things all the time anymore.’’
Woods said, after he won his 14th career major championship, at the 2008 U.S. Open, “I wouldn’t have foreseen’’ not having added a 15th, 16th or more by now.
“After I won my 14th, I felt like I still had plenty more major championships that I could win, but unfortunately I just didn’t do it,’’ Woods said. “I put myself there with chances on the back nine on various Sundays and just haven’t done it. Hopefully this year I put myself there again, and hopefully I’ll get it done.’’
One fellow player and rival who’s played a lot of golf with and against Woods believes he still has major championship wins in him.
“I just wouldn’t rule him out,’’ Phil Mickelson said. “I’ve seen him do things with a golf ball and perform at a level higher than anything I’ve seen in the game. I just would never rule him out.
“To see him play the way he did with such control at the Tour Championship and compete in the majors the way he did at the British and PGA, I just think that greatness is still in him, and I would never rule him out.’’
Brooks Koepka, who held off Woods to win the PGA in August, joked that he “spoiled everybody of their dreams the last time we played, so … sorry.’’
Koepka then went on to say, “Taking myself out of [winning this week], I think it would be absolutely incredible to watch’’ Woods win a fifth Masters.
“It would be incredible to see,’’ he said. “We all know he’s back. There’s no doubt about that. He can he get it done. With the Open and the PGA, he’s been very close. I wouldn’t be surprised this week if he’s knocking on the door.’’