Talking publicly for the first time since failing to register a single point in four matches for the Americans at Le Golf National, Tiger Woods said:

Woods was speaking at an event for his own charity, staged at Pebble Beach, California on Tuesday.

In a Q&A, he was asked about his emotional victory at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on the Sunday before the Ryder Cup, when he held off Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose to claim his 80th win on the PGA Tour.

‘To be honest, even now it is still sinking in because 80 is such a big number,’ he said. ‘It’s amazing to think I’ve won 80 times out here because it isn’t easy.

‘What validates it is that I got the chance to go head to head with Rory and also that Rosey in the group ahead was tied with him. Justin had just become the No 1 player in the world.

‘In order to get my first win for five years, therefore, I had to beat those two guys, so that makes if feel even more special.’

Woods said he was unsure of his future schedule, other than a winner-take-all match-up for $9million against Phil Mickelson over Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas next month, and his own exhibition event, the Hero World Challenge, in the Bahamas in December.

He has circled one date.  Asked which of next year’s majors he was most looking forward to, even Pebble Beach, where he won the US Open in 2000 and which stages the 2019 edition,  did not get a look-in.

2019 Tiger will be the best Tiger. Hopefully he’ll be ready to go, and not show any more signs of fatigue.