British Open Golf 2014: Tiger Woods Won't Win Says Curtis Strange; 'He's Lying to Himself'

The British Open is set to commence at Royal Liverpool and Tiger Woods will be in on the action.

It will be the first time in 2014 that Tiger Woods will join a major championship, following a surgery to fix his back. For almost a decade, Woods was the odds-on favorite to win every major tournament. However, his injury got in the way so he had to take a step back from the first two majors of the year. He returned to action in June but was still rusty. People began sharing their thoughts on Tiger's possible performance at Hoylake.

Curtis Strange, the captain of the 2002 Ryder Cup team and a two-time U.S. Open champion, said in a report by Yahoo! Sports, "Even before his surgery, and his form was obviously hampered by his physical condition, he wasn't playing well so when you have an operation and you've been out for three months, you're not going to be a better player after doing that."

He added, "If he goes to Hoylake saying, 'I'm here to win and that's the only thing', that would be him telling a lie to himself."

Golf experts agree that there is some truth to Strange's statements. Woods is still in the rehabilitative stage so he needs to exert more effort just to make the cut. Winning a major tournament coming off shortly from an operation may be too much of a task, even for a great like Tiger Woods. Woods has not won a major championship since 2008. His form and power have also changed much in the past season.

Strange did admit that Woods remains as one of the most formidable players in any golf tournament. He said in a report by Mail Online, "We learned a long time ago never to say never about Tiger because he's such an incredibly talented player but you have to look at a couple of things." He said, "He's not 100 per cent golf-fit yet. It's good to see him back and healthy but I wonder what kind of condition he's going to be in at the Open because he's not playing again until then." Curtis added, "If that was me I would want to play at least one more tournament before the Open to get my game in better shape, to get more strength in my golf muscles."

The 59-year-old Strange concluded, "I don't care how much practice you do, it's not the same thing as playing in competition."