07 August,2009 08:46 AM IST | | AFP
Tiger Woods must win the 91st PGA Championship to avoid going without a major title for the first year since 2004 but sees his comeback from knee surgery as a major triumph of a different sort.
World number one Woods will be among the favorites next week for the year's final major championship at Hazeltine after a season that has seen him win four titles following an eight-month layoff for reconstructive left knee surgery.
"This year I think just being able to come back and play and be successful again has been a tremendous step in the right direction," Woods said.
"To win, and not only win but be as consistent as I've been the entire year coming back, that's one of the things I'm probably the most proud of."
Woods, a 14-time major champion chasing the record 18 won by Jack Nicklaus, made his return in February's World Golf Championships Match-Play Championship and has shocked even himself at how well he has done in his comeback campaign.
Didn't predict it
"If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year before I even played whether I would have four wins by now, I couldn't see it, because walking 18 holes was going to be a task," Woods said.
"Looking back on it now, playing the Match Play where I was physically then and where I'm at now is just night and day. It was hard to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Woods has won four times this year - all of them coming two weeks before a major championship.
The "Two Weeks Too Early Slam" includes the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Memorial, the National which Woods hosts and last week's Buick Open, where Woods won his 69th career PGA title.
