• Former world No 1 has climbed to 20th in Ryder Cup rankings • Victory at Bellerive would seal automatic berth for France

Tiger Woods might feel “blessed” to have been permitted a renaissance but his ambitions remain clearly defined. Woods has aspirations of winning the US PGA Championship, the last qualifying event for the American Ryder Cup team, thereby completing a stunning comeback by earning an automatic berth for France.

Woods, already a vice-captain for the USA, is currently 20th in their Ryder Cup rankings. His case for one of four wildcard picks is boosted by the fact he was essentially non-competitive through the early phase of the qualifying process because of injury.

“I’ve gone from zero to 20th in seven months,” Woods said. “I’m trending. So that’s all I’m going to say.” Asked whether, if in the US captain Jim Furyk’s shoes, the 14-times major winner would pick Tiger Woods, he replied: “Well, I think he’s trying to get into the top eight.

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“Just the fact I’m playing the tour again, just for me to be able to have this opportunity again, is a dream come true. I have said this many times this year, I didn’t know if I could do this again, and lo and behold, here I am.

“So just coming back and being able to play at this level and compete; I’ve had my share of chances to win this year as well and hopefully I’ll get it done this week.”

To prove injury problems are not completely in the past, Woods offered insight into a necessary break from golf on Monday, having played in last weekend’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational. “I needed that day off,” he said. “I spent a few times in the ice bath just trying to get some inflammation down and just trying to get ready for the rest of the week.”

Like much of the field for the 100th US PGA, Woods had preparation work at Bellerive in Missouri disrupted by torrential rain and electric storms. He played only five holes on Monday.

Woods recalled his last visit to Bellerive, in 2001 when a World Golf Championship was cancelled after the Twin Towers atrocity. He duly drove back to Florida, with the 17-hour journey sufficient for Woods to rethink how his charity work was structured.

He recalled: “We were a golf-based foundation. I did a lot of clinics around the country, tried to raise money for the local areas and trying to bring awareness and a better understanding to our youth about the job opportunities that are afforded in the game of golf.

“The tragedies happened on the 11th, I drove home on the 13th and I reflected. I called it basically a travelling circus. We would raise a bunch of money, be there for one week and gone for 51. A couple of weeks later I sat down with my dad, and said: ‘Dad, I think we need to change the foundation and our directive and how we go about it.’”

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Woods will play the first two rounds in the company of Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas. McIlroy admits a special mindset is required for such marquee draws. “You just have to accept that 75% of the people that are out there watching are watching one guy in that group and that’s it,” he said. “You just have to be in the right place mentally to accept it and go with it.”

McIlroy’s prospects were endorsed by his Ryder Cup captain, Thomas Bjorn. “I admire his patience and I admire the way he goes about it because a lot of other players would feel it a lot more when you get yourself in that position and don’t quite get over the line,” Bjorn said.

“I have watched him so much over the last few months and I just think he’s in a place where it’s going to go ‘Boom’ then he’s going to start winning a lot of tournaments again. He’s contending every week, and as a player, you go through spells where you don’t quite get over the line.

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“He’s going through that spell that all players go through at some stage of not quite winning them but still there. And then eventually when he wins that one, then I think he’ll just start rolling again.”