Resurgent Tiger looks for ninth win at Bay Hill

Tiger Woods during a news conference at Bay Hill in Orlando.

Tiger Woods seeks an unprecedented ninth triumph at the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting on Thursday, the 14-time major champion hoping to find top form on one of his favorite courses.
The 42-year-old American, coming off a runner-up effort last week at the Valspar Championship, enters his last tuneup for next month's Masters after his best result in nearly five years and showing no signs of the back injuries that have haunted prior comebacks.
"Just keep getting better," Woods said of his goals for the week. "Just keep making incremental improvements and I think I've done that. Each and every week I've learned from what I've done and more importantly I'm learning my body. I'm learning how I can swing it and not swing it.
"My recovery, these are all things that are new. So I'm still learning, I'm getting a lot better at it, which is nice and I think that you're starting to see the fruits of that now of the little tweaks I've made and I'm excited about it."
Woods, a winner eight times in 17 starts at Bay Hill, last won on the Orlando layout in 2013. He recall being greeted at the 18th green by tournament namesake legend Palmer, who died in 2016.
"To be able to win this tournament and to have Arnold there and to shake his hand and for him to give me a big hug and a couple times he says, 'I called it, I knew you were going to make that putt' - little things like that, the last sharing jokes with him out there on the green and he and I laughing - those are moments that unfortunately I'll never have (again). But I have those memories."
Woods has 79 US PGA Tour titles, three shy of Sam Snead's all-time record, and his major win total remains four short of the record 18 won by Jack Nicklaus.
Woods has not won a major title since the 2008 US Open, but he has won four times at Augusta National, where he will tee off in three weeks seeking another major crown.