LONDON: Tiger Woods has been backed to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 Majors by none other than the golfing great himself.
Woods ended a five-year winless run on Sunday, claiming victory in the Tour Championship to usher in emotional and frenzied scenes at the East Lake Golf Club. This time last year, after a fourth back operation, it was widely assumed his time as a top-class golfer was over. But this year has seen him hit those predictions into the long rough as he has found form and fun on the fairways once again.
And fresh off Woods’ first “W” since 2013 Nicklaus predicted more titles for Tiger, not least in respect of the American’s charge to try to overhaul the all-time great’s record of 18 Majors.
Woods has been stuck on 14 Majors since 2008, and it has been generally accepted that having looked all but certain to reach Nicklaus’ mark, Woods’ personal and injury problems would mean he would not get close to the 78-year-old’s mark.
“Maybe Tiger’s got another 40 Majors to play. Out of 40 majors can he win five of them?” Nicklaus, known as the Golden Bear, said.
“He’s playing well enough. It depends how much he wants to work at it, how interested he is, and long he wants to make a commitment to do that.
“With today’s equipment, and the way the guys take care of themselves, I think they could play well into their 50s.
“I’m proud of him. He’s worked very hard to get his golf game back. He even worked really hard to get the five inches between his head thinking the right way again.”
For now all thoughts of getting back on the Major-winning trail will doubtless be put to the back of Woods’ mind, with the Ryder Cup starting on Friday. Ahead of the biennial battle against Europe, Woods revealed how much the Tour Championship win meant.
“I was having a hard time not crying on the last hole,” Woods said, his voice choking at times. “I just can’t believe I pulled this off.
“It hasn’t been so easy the last couple of years. It’s hard to believe I was able to do it again.
“(This win) is certainly up there with obviously all the Major championships I’ve won,” Woods added.
“I just didn’t know whether this would ever happen again. It means a lot. It really does.”
Phil Mickelson, once Woods’ arch-rival, led the tributes to his Ryder Cup teammate.
“He’s played such good golf all year that it is just not surprising,” he said.
“Tiger’s played so well on a very difficult golf course and we almost kind of expected it.
“We never doubted he would not win again, not from what I’ve seen (with the way) he’s been swinging the club.
“It was just a matter of time.”
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Jack Nicklaus backs Tiger Woods to overhaul his Major record
Jack Nicklaus backs Tiger Woods to overhaul his Major record
Football returns to Gaza pitch scarred by war and loss
- Fans gather to cheer the first football tournament in two years in the ruins of Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa district
- 'No matter what happened in terms of destruction and genocidal war, we continue with playing,' Gazan footballer says
On a worn-out five-a-side pitch in a wasteland of ruined buildings and rubble, Jabalia Youth took on Al-Sadaqa in the Gaza Strip’s first organized football tournament in more than two years.
The match ended in a draw, as did a second fixture featuring Beit Hanoun vs Al-Shujaiya. But the spectators were hardly disappointed, cheering and shaking the chain-link fence next to the Palestine Pitch in the ruins of Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa district.
Boys climbed a broken concrete wall or peered through holes in the ruins to get a look. Someone was banging on a drum.
Youssef Jendiya, 21, one of the Jabalia Youth players from a part of Gaza largely depopulated and bulldozed by Israeli forces, described his feeling at being back on the pitch: “Confused. Happy, sad, joyful, happy.”
“People search for water in the morning: food, bread. Life is a little difficult. But there is a little left of the day, when you can come and play football and express some of the joy inside you,” he said.
“You come to the stadium missing many of your teammates... killed, injured, or those who traveled for treatment. So the joy is incomplete.”
Four months since a ceasefire ended major fighting in Gaza, there has been almost no reconstruction. Israeli forces have ordered all residents out of nearly two-thirds of the strip, jamming more than 2 million people into a sliver of ruins along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The former site of Gaza City’s 9,000-seat Yarmouk Stadium, which Israeli forces levelled during the war and used as a detention center, now houses displaced families in white tents, crowded in the brown dirt of what was once the pitch.
For this week’s tournament the Football Association managed to clear the rubble from a collapsed wall off a half-sized pitch, put up a fence and sweep the debris off the old artificial turf.
By coming out, the teams were “delivering a message,” said Amjad Abu Awda, 31, a player for Beit Hanoun. “That no matter what happened in terms of destruction and genocidal war, we continue with playing, and with life. Life must continue.”
The match ended in a draw, as did a second fixture featuring Beit Hanoun vs Al-Shujaiya. But the spectators were hardly disappointed, cheering and shaking the chain-link fence next to the Palestine Pitch in the ruins of Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa district.
Boys climbed a broken concrete wall or peered through holes in the ruins to get a look. Someone was banging on a drum.
Youssef Jendiya, 21, one of the Jabalia Youth players from a part of Gaza largely depopulated and bulldozed by Israeli forces, described his feeling at being back on the pitch: “Confused. Happy, sad, joyful, happy.”
“People search for water in the morning: food, bread. Life is a little difficult. But there is a little left of the day, when you can come and play football and express some of the joy inside you,” he said.
“You come to the stadium missing many of your teammates... killed, injured, or those who traveled for treatment. So the joy is incomplete.”
Four months since a ceasefire ended major fighting in Gaza, there has been almost no reconstruction. Israeli forces have ordered all residents out of nearly two-thirds of the strip, jamming more than 2 million people into a sliver of ruins along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The former site of Gaza City’s 9,000-seat Yarmouk Stadium, which Israeli forces levelled during the war and used as a detention center, now houses displaced families in white tents, crowded in the brown dirt of what was once the pitch.
For this week’s tournament the Football Association managed to clear the rubble from a collapsed wall off a half-sized pitch, put up a fence and sweep the debris off the old artificial turf.
By coming out, the teams were “delivering a message,” said Amjad Abu Awda, 31, a player for Beit Hanoun. “That no matter what happened in terms of destruction and genocidal war, we continue with playing, and with life. Life must continue.”
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