Tiger has his "game face" set for U.S. Open at Olympic

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tiger Woods has not won a major title in four long years but the former world number one oozed a steely confidence at the Olympic Club on Tuesday while preparing for this week's U.S. Open.

Boosted by his 73rd PGA Tour victory at the Memorial tournament two weeks ago in Dublin, Ohio, Woods is happy with his game and returns to a course he knows very well from his student days at Stanford University.

"It feels good," Woods, a three-times U.S. Open champion, told reporters. "I'm looking forward to it. I've played the golf course now a couple of times and it's quick out there.

"I'm excited about playing, excited about this golf course. I've played a lot here in college and it's great to be back."

For the second time this year, Woods comes into a major championship fresh from a PGA Tour win but he feels a lot more confident this week than he did before the Masters in April.

"When I went into Augusta (for the Masters), I did not feel comfortable hitting the ball up," the 36-year-old American said. "And I got back into a lot of my old patterns. Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

"That's what made playing Muirfield (for the Memorial tournament) so nice is that I had those shots and I was doing it the correct way. I had compression and I was hitting the ball high and hitting it long. That was fun."

Two weeks before the Masters, Woods romped to victory by five shots at the Arnold Palmer Invitational but he struggled at Augusta National where he recorded his worst performance in the year's opening major since he turned professional.