Tiger believes in his ability to win U.S. Open

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- The property on which Chambers Bay golf course sits was once a rock quarry, a paper mill, an industrial center, a lumber yard, a railroad center, a sand and gravel mine. There are remnants of its past around the property, imposing concrete structures, dilapidated monuments to what used to be.

And while we're on the subject, Tiger Woods met with reporters Tuesday.

Woods is preparing to play in his 19th U.S. Open, at Chambers Bay this week. The remnants of his 14 major championships and spectacular career still resonate. But his reputation for dominance and his credibility as the game's premier talent are in ruins, a shadow of what used to be.

Golf instructor David Leadbetter characterized the situation well while commenting for CNN. Leadbetter said it's no longer about whether Woods can still challenge Jack Nicklaus and his record of 18 professional major championships. It's much more basic than that.

"Winning another golf tournament would be a major success," Leadbetter said. "If he does win a major, it could be considered as a greater feat than what he has achieved to this point in his career."

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That may be overstating things regarding a player who once won four major championships in a row, but the point is compelling. Woods has been idling on 14 majors since his last one -- a playoff win over Rocco Mediate at the 2008 U.S. Open. But now the engine is knocking ... loudly.

In his most recent start at the Memorial, Woods had a career-worst round of 85, finished last and failed to crack 300 for the first time as a pro. His 2015 scoring average is 73.5; he ranks 299th in driving distance, 118th in club-head speed. Now he is at Chambers Bay, competing in the toughest golf championship on the planet, hoping to find salvation among the crumbling bins of an old rock quarry.

Cole Hammer, playing in the national championship at the ripe old age of 15, said his first memory of professional golf is watching Woods do a fist-pump while winning this event in '08. Seven years later, the fist-pumps have stopped, replaced by club-slams, expletives and rationalizations.

But the 39-year-old Woods remains steadfast, pragmatic, optimistic. He preaches the collateral damage being absorbed right now will bring great rewards. He insists this is all part of the plan.

"Sometimes you have to make a shift and I did," Woods said, referring to changes in his swing with consultation from Chris Como. "And (there is) short-term suffering for long-term gain. I've done this before when I've made changes in the past. I've struggled through it and I've come out on the good side.

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"But I had to make those. It's more of a commitment than anything else ... And things are starting to come together, piece by piece. Just all of the big change is already in and now it's just refining it and actually, now playing more tournament golf. ... It would be nice to get back in the realm of playing tournament golf."

As Major Frank Burns once said on the hit television show "M*A*S*H," "It's nice to be nice to the nice."

But "nice" is not the word one normally uses to describe a U.S. Open, at least not the previous 114 versions. The words being used to describe the golf course Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed on Puget Sound this week are "interesting," "versatile" and "tricky."

Cracking the code at Chambers Bay will be more difficult than hacking the Houston Astros. This will look a lot like a British Open, true enough. But links courses in the British Isles don't often feature the elevation changes in play this week. They don't often feature the dramatic undulation of these fescue greens, distortions that make bump-and-run tactics risky business.

This is not your father's U.S. Open, with tree-lined fairways, soaring heat indexes, entangling rough and dried-out greens. This is not your son's U.S. Open. This is a blank canvas in the Pacific Northwest, a championship still seeking a name tag.

"I really like the golf course," said Irishman Rory McIlroy, who made the 2011 U.S. Open the first of his four major championships. "I think it sets up well for my game."

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But to determine how Chambers Bay sets up for Woods' game one must first determine exactly what that game is. He talks about playing more tournaments, but he has played only 14 rounds of competitive golf this year, eight that finished in scores of 72 or higher.

Most ominous, all of those rounds took place in friendly environments, courses where Woods has enjoyed success and repeated it. His 79 wins on the PGA Tour have come at 25 tournaments. In Washington, he tackles virgin territory, from the perch of the 195th spot in the Official World Golf Rankings, a step off the pace of 194th-ranked Julien Quesne.

Who is Julien Quesne? Exactly.

Once No. 1 in those rankings, once oozing attitude and presence, Woods now leans on consolation. Asked about finding himself at a major championship after struggling so conspicuously leading up to it, Woods played the Masters card and built his case on a tie for 17th.

"I just did it this year," he said. "You saw what I did at Torrey Pines and Phoenix. And the fact that I came back and did what I did at Augusta, as I said, I was very proud of that ... to be able to go back to the grindstone and work my butt off to get back to a level in which I could compete at a high level. And I had a chance going into Sunday."

Well, a fat chance, anyway. True, Woods played well at Augusta, had two rounds of 68. But he also shot a 73 Sunday and finished 13 shots behind Jordan Spieth. It seems unfair to disparage a T17 at a major. But this is Tiger Woods, the same Tiger Woods who set these standards, the same who talks about winning being the only thing.

Ask him what he has left to accomplish, and he doesn't flinch.

"More wins," he said, matter-of-factly, adding, "That's why I'm still playing."

If they can take a sand and gravel pit and convert it into a gorgeous golf course at Chambers Bay, maybe they can take Woods and restore him as well. Stranger things have happened.

They must have.

This article was written by Dan O'Neill from St. Louis Post-Dispatch and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.