The battle at the top with McIlroy, Spieth

“This has been the five-week mark at present from once I did it. I feel perhaps there’s just a bit stiffness within the mornings, however it’s good“.

He began this year with a runner-up finish in Abu Dhabi after a seven-week break, though he conceded it was far different at a major championship.

Rory McIlroy says he is “100 per cent” ready to play the US PGA Championship this week – though he is not yet fit enough to return to the football pitch. “Some people get there quicker than others”. Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson have the first three between them.

McIlroy said his left cleat got stuck in the turf and he rolled over the ankle, tearing one ligament and spraining another.

Think back to the wincing Woods at Torrey Pines in 2008 when he won the U.S. Open on a torn up knee and fractured leg. McIlroy wasn’t about to sound tentative.

Nobody would have blamed him for bowing out of a tournament after taking a tumble like that. “There’s just fewer chances at playing in majors and winning”, said Fowler, who won the Players Championship and Scottish Open earlier this season.

Woods, whose world ranking has plummeted to 278th as he continues to work through the latest swing change of his career after recovering from back surgery, said the fans at Whistling Straits were even more susceptible to the mosquitoes. I tried to tell myself that my year was going to be built around April through to September, and that’s when a lot of the big tournaments rolled around.

– Spieth wins and McIlroy finishes in a two-way tie for second or worse. 1 and 2 in the world, respectively, for the first two rounds.

Tiger Woods finally seemed to turn a corner in his game in recent weeks.

At least not according to Day’s version of things. The American missed out on the play off after grounding his club on the final hole in a bunker which meant Johnson was penalised two shots.

“The beginning of the season was fine”, Kaymer said, but he derailed himself with too fixed a focus on the Masters. “Then on top of it, it’s very hard to try and close on a Sunday at a major championship”.

“That’s what I have done over most of my career, and I’d like to get to that point again where I could do that”. I don’t know how many putts I will hit before teeing off on Thursday – hundreds and hundreds. He became an afterthought then. “I know I’m in the 200s somewhere”, Woods said on Tuesday. And to win the way I did, making birdies coming in, definitely made it that much better.