As one of that elite body of men who have gone into the last day of majors with a handsome lead, Woods was also quizzed on what it had meant to McIlroy to have been as many as six ahead going into the last round.
"The beauty of having such a large lead," replied Woods, "is that you can make mistakes and still win the tournament. The guys have to come and get you.
"In finishing eagle, bogey, eagle in his third round, Rory made a wonderful job of separating himself from the rest. All of a sudden he went from level to six ahead and after that he had a choice. He could afford to play conservatively and he could afford to play aggressively."
Moving on to his own performance, Woods described it as "encouraging" rather than the reverse. After all, he had hardly played since his early-season back operation.
He made it plain that he believes he still has what it takes to win majors and you would have to suspect that he raised a quizzical eyebrow at McIlroy’s use of the past tense in his Sunday-night reference to him.
The relevant McIlroy comment was as follows: "I want to be the guy who goes on and regularly wins majors and other tournaments like Jack Nicklaus did and Tiger Woods did."
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