Tiger Woods learns from past mistakes

With his comeback from injury only a day away, Tiger Woods admits his latest injury setback has forced him to change his attitude to the game’s demands.

“Listening to my body, that’s one thing that I have learned,” said Tiger. “Particularly with this injury, this is very different than pushing through my knee injuries.

“As you know, in the past, I probably would have pushed through it and set myself back. Then kept pushing harder and harder and harder until stuff breaks.

“I didn’t realise how much damage I was doing to my body at the time.”

“I remember all the early years on tour when I used to run 30 miles a week and just push it, no matter how hurt I was.

“I would just go out there, still logging all the miles and do all the different things and still play tournament golf and I was winning, but I didn’t realise how much damage I was doing to my body at the time.”

No quick fix for Tiger Woods

Tiger now concedes he can’t push his body to the extremes he once did. In the past he may have been able to make this one go ‘magically away’ but not now.

“I’ll just run more miles and it will magically go away.”

“I have to now pick my spots when I can and can’t push. When you’re young, I just pushed it all the time. But now I’ve got to listen to my body, listen to my therapist and then get treatment.

“When I was younger, I didn’t need it. So my knee ached a little bit, ‘So what’, I’ll just run more miles and it will magically go away.”

Tiger believes he can win

Woods hasn’t won since the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational. But as ever, he has his mind focused on the job in hand.

“Expectations don’t change. that’s the ultimate goal,” he said. “It’s just that it’s going to be a little bit harder this time.”

Tiger Woods is paired with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, teeing off at 8:12am local time.