Tiger Woods reflected on “a hell of a process” to get to the position of being prominent in majors again, following a second-place finish at the US PGA Championship. This marked Woods’s highest major finish since being runner-up in the same tournament nine years ago.

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Brooks Koepka lifted the Wanamaker Trophy at Bellerive but attention was stolen by a resurgent Woods. Eleven months since the 14-times major champion admitted he “didn’t know what the future holds” amid troublesome recovery from a fourth back surgery, Woods has made meaningful challenges for the Open and US PGA.

“I didn’t even know if I was going to play golf again,” Woods said. “I didn’t know what my schedule would be. I didn’t know how many tournaments I would play this year or if I would even play. So each tournament brought about its own challenges.



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“I didn’t know what the number was going to be this year. I didn’t know how I was going to play. And so at the beginning of the year, if you would say I would have a legit chance to win the last two major championships... with what swing? I didn’t have a swing at the time. I had no speed. I didn’t have a golf swing. My short game wasn’t quite there yet. My putting was OK. But God, I hadn’t played in two years. So it’s been a hell of a process for sure.”

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Woods is widely expected to be selected as a wildcard pick for this year’s US Ryder Cup team, marking a further nod towards the scale of his comeback. “I’m in uncharted territory because no one’s ever had a fused spine, hitting it like I’m hitting it,” he said. “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. 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.”

Woods broke with his own convention by waiting to congratulate Koepka warmly as the champion walked from the course. Woods had previously stated his desire to show his two children he was not solely a “YouTube golfer”. He added: “I don’t want to talk to them about it this week. They’re not really interested in it because they’re interested in starting school and they’re nervous about starting school. So that takes far more precedence than me playing a major.”