Golf's US Open set to begin in New York
- 00:02:32
- ITN
Golf's US Open set to begin in New York
Tiger Woods has proclaimed Jack Nicklaus as the best golfer of all time. The 33-year-old world number one will begin his bid for a 15th major success on Thursday when the 109th US Open gets under way at Bethpage Black. However, victory at the New York course will still leave Woods three championship titles short of the legendary Nicklaus, who won his titles between 1962 and 1986. Woods, who won the first of his majors at the 1997 Masters, has achieved many milestones in the game, including becoming the youngest player at 24 to achieve the career Grand Slam of majors when he won the 2000 Open at St Andrews. Having also become the first player to hold all four major titles at the same time when he won the 2001 Masters, and having spent more than 500 weeks at the top of the world rankings, including 200 consecutive weeks at number one since June 2005, Woods is already considered by some to be the greatest golfer of all time. The American says otherwise and when asked who he thought was the greatest, Woods replied simply: "Jack. He's got 18. I'm at 14." Woods will be chasing his fourth US Open title at Bethpage this week, where he won the second of his titles in 2002, beating Phil Mickelson by three strokes and he appears to have finally returned to his best after eight months out recuperating from reconstructive knee surgery. The American won his third tournament of the year at Bay Hill, but it was not until the Memorial tournament in Ohio two weeks ago, when he found all 14 fairways at Muirfield Village in his final round of 65 to come from behind to win by a stroke, that he felt he had really hit form in all parts of his game. Woods now feels he is in top shape heading into the US Open. "It's always nice to play well going into a major championship, no doubt," he said. "To get a win always adds to the confidence, and no matter how you win, if you can win this way, ball-striking, hitting it that well, especially going into a US Open, it always makes you feel pretty good."
ITN | June 17, 2009
