Woods looks for treble
There is a rapidly-reducing list of things Tiger Woods still has to do in golf - but one is win the Nissan Open in Los Angeles and another is start a season with three successive victories.
The world number one can achieve both at Riviera Country Club this week following his play-off wins over Jose Maria Olazabal at the Buick Invitational and then Ernie Els in the Dubai Desert Classic.
Woods tied with Billy Mayfair at this event in 1998, but suffered what remains his only play-off defeat on the US Tour and then 12 months later finished second again.
It was Els who beat him then and the South African is in the field this week for what will be his first tournament in America since the US Open last June - before the sailing accident which forced him to have knee surgery and to be out of action for four months.
Woods has not won three titles in a row since 2001 (the Bay Hill Invitational, Players Championship and Masters), but the worrying thing for all his rivals is that he was nowhere near his best either at Torrey Pines or in the Middle East.
He finished “only” 13th at Riviera a year ago, although the event was reduced to two rounds because of torrential rain.
The title was decided by a Monday-morning play-off between Adam Scott and Chad Campbell, which the young Australian won, while Brian Davis and Colin Montgomerie were left to reflect on what might have been after finishing third and fifth – Montgomerie after a 64 which was his lowest score on American soil.
Davis returns now, but after two successive missed cuts in Dubai and Perth eight-time European number one Montgomerie is taking a week off presumably to work on his game prior to the 64-man Accenture World Match Play in San Diego.
Swede Henrik Stenson, the only European to win a tournament so far this year, will be looking to continue his fine form and Lee Westwood will be hoping to ignite his bid to keep his Ryder Cup place. He lies only 20th in the current standings.
Luke Donald, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose and Greg Owen are also in the line-up, but most American eyes, naturally, will be on Woods and how the US Tour’s two latest first-time winners – big-hitting rookie JB Holmes and Arron Oberholser – measure up.
Qualifying school winner Holmes won by seven in Phoenix two weeks ago and Oberholser by five at Pebble Beach on Sunday.
