by Our Sports Desk

TIGER WOODS said yesterday that he’d only be happy with victory at his return to major championship action tomorrow.

The former world number one tees off at the 143rd Open Championship at Hoylake aiming to pick up his first piece of silverware since the 2008 US Open.

Asked at a press conference yesterday what he’d consider an acceptable result he answered: “First.”

Once the laughter had died down he added: “That’s always the case.”

The 38-year-old’s recent career has been blighted by injury — he had surgery in March for a back problem that had left him bed-ridden, while he’s also gone under the knife four times to sort out his knees.

His frequent doctors’ visits are the biggest barrier to overtaking Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles — he’s been stuck on 14 for six years — but off-course issues such as the 2006 death of his father and the public humiliation and divorce that came when news broke of his philandering ways have also had an impact.

His third and most recent Claret Jug came the last time the tournament was held at Hoylake.

“It feels great to come back to Hoylake and to this venue,” Woods said on Tuesday. “It meant a lot to me in my life at the time. That was a very emotional week.

“I pressed pretty hard at Augusta that year, trying to win it because it was the last time my dad was ever going to see me play a major championship, and then I didn’t play well at the (US) Open, missed the cut there miserably.”

England’s Justin Rose, meanwhile, was confident that this could be his year.

But he stopped short of Woods’s insistence that only victory would be good enough.

“I think it’s always easy after two wins to get carried away and say you’re playing the best golf of your life,” said the 33-year-old.

“I’m definitely more experienced and I think that begins to swing the pendulum in your favour.

“Experience plays a huge part in being able to capitalise upon your best golf.”