Tiger Woods has made his first appearance in Australia since 2011 as his preparation to captain the United States Presidents Cup team at Royal Melbourne in 12 months ramps up.
Woods, the former world No. 1, conducted a children’s clinic at the famous venue of the 1998 and 2011 Presidents Cup, which will host the biennial gathering again from December 12-15.
Woods has completed his 2018 playing commitments after struggling in his own tournament, the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
But it was a watershed year for the 14-time major winner as he made a great recovery from major back surgery to win the Tour Championship in Atlanta, his first victory in five years.
Woods told the Herald Sun that he was working hard off the course to get himself fit for 2019.
“I don’t recover anywhere near like I used to. That’s one of the challenges is that I still think in my mind I can go and play golf all day and train all day and I can, but then I am suffering for the next couple of days,” Woods said.
“Therein lies the challenge of being an older athlete, and one who has gone through numerous operations. It was one of the more frustrating things this year, I couldn’t work on all aspects of my game in one day. I had to pick one aspect, but then couldn’t do that for three days.
“More than anything for me it’s about being able to recover so I can go hard at it for the 18 holes I do play. I don’t have the excess energy that I used to have to be able to go run three, four of five miles post-round just to get my mind off how I played. It doesn’t work like that anymore.
“The enthusiasm is still there. I love competing, I love playing, I love winning. It’s just sometimes I can’t marry up the body and the mind.”