Reflective Woods content with 'small victories'

AUGUSTA, Georgia : Tiger Woods has always maintained he would never enter a tournament he does not believe he can win but he offered no such bravado on Tuesday about his chances of adding a sixth Masters Green Jacket to his collection.

Even last year returning to competitive golf at Augusta National 14 months after a car crash nearly resulted in the amputation of his right leg, a defiant Woods insisted he was there to win.

But given the opportunity during his pre-Masters news conference, a reflective 15-time major winner was content to talk of "small victories".

Saying his game and endurance are both better than a year ago when he astonished the sporting world by making the Masters cut and grinding through four rounds, the 47-year-old was offering no bold predictions of what to expect this week.

"I didn't win the tournament, but for me to be able to come back and play was a small victory in itself," Woods told reporters. "I still would have liked to have gotten the W, but I didn't.

"I think I got my own smaller version of that, to come back and just be able to play.

"It's harder now.

"I don't play as many tournaments, and I don't practice as much. I'm limited in what I can do."

Having played just a single competitive event this season at the Genesis Open where he finished in a tie for 45th, there are even more questions than usual about the state of Woods's game.

While he looked more comfortable in his only start this year, Woods's surgically reconstructed leg will be put to the test at Augusta National, a layout he knows better than anyone in the field but also one of the more taxing walks on the PGA Tour.

"I just have to be cognizant of how much I can push it," said Woods. "It's been a tough, tough road.

"I don't know how many