Tiger back to winning ways and happy with his Nike driver

TIGER Woods already has his sights set on the 2004 WGC American Express Championship at Mount Juliet even though it is still a full year away.

Woods retained his Amex title in some style at Woodstock, Georgia, on Sunday evening, and immediately gave the thumbs up to the world championships.

"We are fortunate in golf to have the majors and these world championships," said Tiger. "They mean more than, say, a Western Open or a Bay Hill Classic because you're playing against a better field. It's taken off the world rankings and you can't get better than that. It's not watered down. It's always fun when you get to play against the best."

It will be readily recalled how Woods shot 25 under par to win the same Amex event at Mount Juliet in September, 2002, and showered praise on the Co Kilkenny course.

In contrast, eight under par was good enough to earn the latest Amex title for Tiger so there should be a lesson there somewhere. Mount Juliet have promised they will introduce features that will make their course a more formidable test without compromising in any way on the quality of their lay-out especially their immaculate greens. That shouldn't prove too much for course Superintendent Aidan O'Hara and his team and already the return of Tiger and co is a mouth-watering proposition.

The difficulty of the Woodstock course, only a couple of years old, produced a lot of moaning and whingeing from the game's finest. But not Woods who recalled an old Jack Nicklaus dictum to make his point: "Jack used to say that guys took themselves out of it mentally at the start of the week. But playing difficult golf courses puts more emphasis on good ball striking and course management. You can't go out there and blindly hit shots. If you've got 142, just hit it blindly on the number. You can't do that.

"You have to shape it in there, feed it and use the slopes. You've got to be creative and very patient. Starting out today, I never really fired at a flag. I had a sand wedge into number four. It's a perfect situation to go right at the flag but I fired fifteen feet right of it because if I go left with my kind of spin, it's coming right back."

Interestingly, though, Woods isn't suggesting that winning a world championship (he has eight) comes ahead of, or is easier than, landing a major.

"Nothing compares to what you feel coming down the stretch in a major. Any player can tell you that. Coming down the last few holes in the Masters, US Open, British Open, US PGA, I'm telling you what, it's tough. It's hard to swallow. It's a little bit of a different atmosphere than today."

Once again, those who have made a habit of writing off Woods as a major player on the big occasions have been forced to consume large portions of humble pie. It was his fifth victory of the season and even if he is under pressure to retain his 'player of the year' title, few can doubt he remains as formidable a performer as ever graced the world's fairways. Not surprisingly, too, Nike, his chief sponsor, were swift to point out his latest victory was achieved with one of their prototype drivers, to come on the market early in 2004. His troubles with the original Nike club and return to an old Titleist favourite received enormous publicity so it was inevitable that Nike would immediately react to redress Woods' club difficulties.

"His average drive in the Amex was measured at 312.8 yards, up 13.5 yards on his average of 299.3 coming into the event," they pointed out last night. "He used Nike Golf's Ignite driver which features a new titanium based face that will provide golfers with greater distance and control when introduced next spring."

Woods, of course, is in receipt of massive sums of money from Nike; you can only imagine what the relationships was like when he returned to the Titleist club, implying his Nike driver wasn't up to scratch. Accordingly, it could be argued that he was only getting back into their good books when he lauded the new driver at Sunday night's press conference at Woodstock although those who closely studied his long game over the four days of the Amex had to have noticed that he was driving the ball a lot straighter than in recent outings.

"I hit it great," he maintained. "It was great to hit some of those nice high draws out there again. Any time I can step up there in a left-to-right wind and know I can hit that ball and hold it, that's huge, how I play."

Tiger Woods may be one of the richest sportsmen in the world but that doesn't mean he allows sentiment to get in the way of a business arrangement. He made a bit of a song and dance on Sunday about his victory being the 100th on tour for his caddy, New Zealander Steve Williams. However, when asked if Williams would be getting a bonus to mark the occasion, Tiger responded immediately: "No, just his normal percentage."

Tiger Woods not a man to be underestimated. On or off the golf course!