Tiger Woods will contend at Hoylake, claims Rory McIlroy

Curtis Strange and Hank Haney may have dismissed Tiger Woods’ chances of going back-to-back at Hoylake but Rory McIlroy believes such nay-saying about the 14-time major champion is utter nonsense.

“Even before his surgery, and his form was obviously hampered by his physical condition, he wasn’t playing well so when you have an operation and you’ve been out for three months, you’re not going to be a better player after doing that,” two-time U.S. Open winner Strange told Reuters ahead of Woods’ second competitive test following back surgery.

In Woods’ sole foray back to the PGA Tour since undergoing a microdiscectomy on March 31, the former world No. 1 missed the cut at the Quicken Loans National two weeks ago. He would have no additional reps under tournament conditions between June 27 and the start of the tournament on July 17. The last time Royal Liverpool hosted the British Open was in 2006, which was also Woods’ last Open victory, but Strange gave the oft-injured seventh-ranked player no chance to repeat his ‘06 heroics this time around.

“If he goes to Hoylake saying, ‘I’m here to win and that’s the only thing,’” said Strange, “that would be him telling a lie to himself.”

Woods’ ex-coach Haney has expressed similar views.

“That [Woods] isn’t going to play competitively in the two weeks running up to the Open speaks to the fact that he doesn’t care as much as he used to,” Haney, who coached Tiger to six of his 14 major titles, told John Huggan.

“I can’t believe he feels like he is ready to win the Open. If he did, he would have played at the Greenbrier this week or at the Scottish Open,” Haney observed. “But he hasn’t practiced much for almost a year now. He took time off at the end of last season, played a bit, then got hurt. So he is way behind in his preparation.”

McIlroy, playing the contrarian, fully expects to battle his Nike stablemate down to the wire for bragging rights in the men’s penultimate major of the season.

“We have all witnessed what Tiger has been able to do over his career, whether that’s come back from injury and win, come back from any sort of off-course stuff and win,” McIlroy told reporters ahead of this week’s Scottish Open. “I mean, he won the U.S. Open on one leg, really on one leg.

“Is it foolish for people to write him off? I would say so,” McIlroy added. “If he’s playing and he’s competing, he’s got as good a chance as any. I wouldn’t write him off completely. I still think he can do things that we have never seen from any other golfer.”

McIlroy, who owns a spotty British Open record that includes a second-round 80 at St. Andrews in 2010 after a sizzling 63 to open, as well as a missed cut last year at Muirfield where he berated himself as “brain dead,” likes his own chances of salting away his third grand slam title.

“You’ve got to relish the challenge,” McIlroy said about teeing it up in conditions that long-range weather forecasters predict will be damp and chilly. “I’m trying to adopt more of that mindset, especially for these couple of weeks a year. It’s not like I haven’t played well on links courses before and in links conditions.

“Back when I was 15, 16, 17, playing links golf all the time, it wasn’t anything to put your wet gear on and play whereas now we’re so spoiled playing in great conditions,” said McIlroy, who more recently has made no secret of his preference for warm and sunny. “Any time there’s a bit of rain in America it’s a thunderstorm so you go in anyway.”

McIlroy enters the Scottish Open after missing his second straight Irish Open cut, an Ibiza holiday with several pals, and amid rumors that there’s a new future Mrs. Rory McIlroy in his life.

“It’s just going to be like that,” McIlroy acknowledged about his private life garnering as much public attention, post-breakup with ex-fiancee Caroline Wozniacki and partying with new squeeze, model Nadia Forde, as it did when Wozilroy went viral.

“It is what it is,” said the 25-year-old bachelor. “I just live my life and people can say or write whatever they want. I’m very single and very happy at the minute, that’s all I can say.”