Tiger Woods said he has not felt this good in a while after the former world number one finished second to Brooks Koepka at the US PGA Championship.
Woods flirted with victory but the American great's wait for a 15th major title continued as Kopeka triumphed by two strokes in St Louis on Sunday.
After a rough start at Bellerive Country Club on Thursday, Woods dominated the course to finish 14 under thanks to eight birdies.
Woods – who has undergone four back surgeries since 2014, dealt with personal issues, and admitted he did not know if he had ever compete again – has now finished in the top six at back-to-back majors.
"Not for awhile, no. I was pretty ticked at the British Open," Woods said when asked if he's ever felt this good after a tournament he didn't win. "I had the lead there. This one I never quite got to the lead. I was always trailing. It was a golf course in which I couldn't sit still and make pars and be okay with it. I had to keep making birdies.
"The golf course was soft, it was gettable, and there were a bunch of guys, when I went to the range to start warming up, there were a bunch of guys at three-under par through six, three-under par through seven. And so, yeah, that was, you could see guys shooting five, six under par today and with a bunch of guys around eight-under or better starting the day, I had to go get it and I tried."
The 42-year-old Woods, who entered the week ranked 51st in the world, has an incredible seven top-12 finishes this year.
"I didn't know what my schedule would be," Woods added. "I didn't know how many tournaments I would play this year or if I would even play. Each tournament brought about its own challenges. I didn't know what the number was going to be this year.
"I didn't know how I was going to play. And at the beginning of the year, if you would say, yeah, I would have a legit chance to win the last two major championships, I, with what swing? I didn't have a swing at the time. I had no speed. I didn't have a golf swing. I didn't have — my short game wasn't quite there yet. My putting was okay. But God, I hadn't played in two years. It's been a hell of a process for sure."
As far as goals moving forward, Woods is still just glad to be back competing and contending.
"As I said, this has been a process on building," Woods said. "I didn't know when I was going to start this year and how many tournaments I was going to play, how well I was going to play. I didn't know what swing I was going to use either.
"I'm in uncharted territory. Because no one's ever had a fused spine hitting it like I'm hitting it. So I had to kind of figure this out on my own and it's been really hard, it's a lot harder than people think. And I'm just very pleased at what I've done so far and now to be part of the Ryder Cup conversation, going from where I've come from to now in the last year, it's been pretty cool."
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