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Tiger Sets Sights on Sixth-Straight Win at WGC-American Express Championship

/noticias.info/ By Mark Soltau

HERTFORDSHIRE, England – Tiger Woods has had extraordinary success in World Golf Championship events, winning 11 of 21 starts, the latest coming last month at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. It marked the 15th time in his career he has successfully defended a PGA Tour title. Woods has averaged 68.02, posted 19 Top 10 finishes, and banked more than $14.4 million.

This week, he will try and repeat at the $7.5 million WGC-American Express Championship at The Grove outside London. Last year, Woods defeated John Daly in a sudden-death playoff at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco to claim his fourth AmEx crown and the $1.3 million first prize. He previously won this tournament in 1999 in Spain, 2002 in Ireland, and 2003 near Atlanta, Ga.

“It was a very exciting atmosphere last year,” Woods said this week. “San Francisco has just been a great sporting town. I went to college there in the Bay Area, and so definitely witnessed it first hand. I went to some football games and the crowds were always loud. To have John Daly up there in the playoff I think just added to the atmosphere. He played better than I did, and I just got very lucky and was able to come out on top.”

Woods enters with a five-tournament PGA Tour winning streak, the second-longest of his career. In 1999-2000, he won six-straight. The current run began at the British Open in July, and was followed by victories at the Buick Open, PGA Championship, Bridgestone Invitational and Deutsche Bank Championship.

“It doesn’t really feel like I’m extending the streak,” said Woods. “Just because I played in an event prior to this event and didn’t win. I guess you could say it’s an extension of our tour season, but I did play in the World Match Play and had an opportunity to win that and didn’t even come close.”

Woods was a big admirer of the late Byron Nelson, who passed away Tuesday at age 94, and thinks his PGA Tour record of 11-straight victories ranks among the great achievements in sports history.

“You just try and win tournaments,” Woods said. “I talked to Byron about that, and he did the same thing, he took it step by step. The old adage, you just take it one shot at a time, but that’s what ended up happening. Never look beyond the tournament you’re playing.”

Woods knows he will have his work cut out playing against a tough international field on a course he doesn’t know.

“I guess I’ve won six in a row before, and hopefully I can do it again this week,” he said. “Any time you play in a World Golf Championship, you always have to understand that you’re going to be playing against the best players in the world. All the guys who played in the Ryder Cup are here. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.”

Woods didn’t get much sleep Sunday night, and woke up early Monday to fly to London to do endorsement outings with EA Sports and Nike. Despite the U.S. team’s lopsided loss to Europe, he enjoyed spending time with all the players afterward.

“Both teams hung out with each other, which is, I think the way the spirit of the Ryder Cup is supposed to be,” said Woods. “We all had a great time and singing and dancing. So I think it was a true celebration of golf. I think that's the spirit of how this competition was supposed to be. Unfortunately we got beat pretty bad.”

Where did the American team go wrong?

“I think we basically hit it about the same,” he said. “But they just holed so many more putts than we did. And on top of that, they holed the critical putts that would turn momentum and we did not. Time and time again, if you watch the highlights and you see where our ball is in position to make momentum-changing putts, and it didn't happen. And consequently, if you can't change momentum, and make it go the other way, it basically fuels the other side. Basically that's how it happened all week and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of that.”

Woods is scheduled to start Thursday at 12:03 p.m. local time on the 10th tee with Darren Clarke and Rod Pampling. notas_de_prensa_archivo