Tiger Woods Says 2018 'One Of My Best Years' In Golf

Tiger Woods is delighted with his 2018 season thus far and claims it has been one of the best seasons of his pro-golfing career.

The 14-time major winner returned to action at the start of this year after playing barely any golf for the last two years owing to chronic back injuries. He underwent his fourth back surgery in 2017 — a spinal fusion procedure — after which he was unsure if he would ever return to playing competitively again.

During the President’s Cup last year, the American opened up further on his injury struggles and revealed that walking without pain was a major task at that point. Even Woods would not have predicted the outcome of his return to competitive action at the start of the year.

Woods’ first tournament of the year was the Farmers Insurance in January and he has since competed in 14 events across the PGA Tour and the four majors. He finished in the top six on five occasions which includes two second place finishes with the most recent being at the USPGA Championships.

The former world number one admits he had no idea of how his season was going to pan out when he made his return in January. But despite the mixed results and no wins, he feels it counts as one of his best seasons as he came into it blindly without any expectations.

"This has been one of my best years, considering that I didn't know what I was going to do -- I just didn't have a clue," Woods said a day before the start of the Dell Technologies Championship, according to Yahoo Sports. "The fact that I've been able to make it this far is very exciting to me. I have a bright future ahead of me because at this point last year, that wasn't the case, didn't know."

"The hardest part is I didn't have any inkling of what this year might be," the 14-time major winner added. "Normally if I have a good offseason or feel healthy, I can reasonably expect what might happen the following year.”

"This year was a complete unknown. I didn't know if I was going to play. I didn't know how many events I was going to play, what swing I was going to use. And a lot of adjustments on the fly," he said.

Woods’ tied fifth place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March made him one of the favorites going into the Augusta Masters in April, but he ended up finishing tied 32. The American lead for a short while at The Open Championships in July and was in contention again at the USPGA earlier this month.

Despite his near misses, he remains stuck at 79 PGA Tour wins and 14 majors. But Woods is not berating himself not getting the elusive win just yet and made it clear he is satisfied to be in the mix for the moment, while being confident that he can make that final step and win his first tournament since 2013.

"The thing for me is to just to keep getting there in the mix, keep getting there on the back nine with a chance to win," Woods said. "... It's just a matter of giving myself enough opportunities. I'm not going to win them all. In order to win them, you've got to be there. And I've been there enough this year and obviously want more of it."