A world-class field and wide-open tournament
March 10, 2010
DORAL, Florida (AP)—One of the billboards at Doral promotes this World GolfChampionship with a familiar slogan and some familiar faces, a photo sequence offive players under the phrase, “The World is Watching.”
Tiger Woods is the center photo. He’s the only one watching this week.
His presence, even after all this time away from the game, remainsprominent.
It’s hard to walk more than a few yards on the practice range at the CAChampionship without hearing chatter about Woods. Players say very littlepublicly when asked about the absence of the world’s No. 1 player, some choosingtheir words carefully, most saying they have enough to worry about with theirown games.
Camilo Villegas, left, of Colo… AP – Mar 10, 1:46 pm EST Alvaro Quiros of Spain, reacts… AP – Mar 10, 1:20 pm EST YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index = 1; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_lazy_images = [http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100310/capt.5701628930ce4addb1b4b723d914f8f6.ca_championship_golf_flls102.jpg?x=180&y=200&xc=1&yc=1&wc=306&hc=340&q=70&sig=J4cglKc.xfPzwUzKLV3reA--]; YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(window,load,YAHOO.Sports.articleLazyLoadCarousel.init); 1 of 2 Golf Gallery function prev_photo() { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index > 0) { goto_photo(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index – 1); } else { goto_photo(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index); }}function next_photo() { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index 0) { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_prev, prev); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_prev, prev_disabled); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_prev, prev_disabled); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_prev, prev); } if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index < YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index) { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_next, next); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_next, next_disabled); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_next, next_disabled); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_next, next); }*/}function goto_photo(p) { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos) { for(i = 0; i < YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos.length; i++) { if (i == p) { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos[i], display, ); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos[i], display, none); } } if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page) { YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page.innerHTML =(p + 1); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index = p; } } update_buttons();}YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_init = function () { YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(article_carousel_prev, click, prev_photo); YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(article_carousel_next, click, next_photo); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index = 0; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page = YAHOO.util.Dom.get(carousel_page); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos = YAHOO.util.Dom.getElementsByClassName(item, div, leadphoto); if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos) { goto_photo(0); }}YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_init();
Privately, they speculate and share the latest inside gossip on his returnjust as much as anyone else.
But as golf moves closer to the first major of the year—the Masters is amonth away—Woods became a topic Wednesday as much for his standard of golf asthe reason why he’s not at Doral.
The season began two months ago with speculation on who might fill the voidleft by Woods, with most of the focus on Phil Mickelson.
Instead, he has been replaced by committee.
Ten tournaments into the PGA Tour season, there have been 10 winners. SteveStricker is the only player who was in the top 10 at the start of the year tohave won anywhere in the world, his victory coming at Riviera.
“I think it’s just a coincidence,” Stricker said. “It always comes backto the depth of the tour, just how good these guys are, and how tough it is towin. How many multiple winners were there last year?”
He wasn’t trying to make a point, only ask a question. The answer is seven—Woods, Mickelson, Stricker, Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson, Kenny Perry and BrianGay. Mickelson was the only player to win multiple times when Woods was in thefield.
When he won at Riviera, it was Stricker’s fourth victory in his last 15starts, which computes to winning 27 percent of his starts. Good stuff, until herealizes that it’s still lower than Woods’ winning rate of 30 percent for hiscareer.
Asked if he would like to see the streak continue of different winners eachweek, Stricker smiled as he tried to think of a clever answer, before settlingon a simple “No.”
He was among the favorites in the 68-man field at Doral, comprised ofplayers from the top 50 in the world ranking and top players from the moneylists on six major tours around the world.
“It’s still a world-class field, and it will take a strong winner,” LeeWestwood said. “You still have to be on top of your game to win.”
Take himself out of the mix and Stricker would favor Mickelson, thedefending champion at Doral. A year ago, Mickelson battled through dehydrationbrought on by food poisoning to hold off Nick Watney in the final round andcapture his first WGC event.
Mickelson has yet to win this year, which most likely has more to do withhis struggle at home as his wife recovers from breast cancer than any technicalaspect of his game. Without a pro-am this week, Mickelson was not due to arriveat Doral until Wednesday evening.
Camilo Villegas is coming off a victory in the Honda Classic last week andmight be the hottest player in golf. In five tournaments, the only time hefailed to finish in the top 10 was his season debut in Abu Dhabi, where he tiedfor 19th.
“Obviously, I’ve had a good start for the year,” Villegas said. “But it’snot the way I think. Just try to keep going. I’ve had a great attitude all year,and I came pretty close in Match Play and I had a chance there at Phoenix. Buttomorrow is Thursday, and trust me, every Thursday, we start from zero. It’stime to forget what happened the previous week.”
Ian Poulter is three weeks removed from his first victory in America at theMatch Play Championship, while Ogilvy is a past WGC winner at Doral who openedthe year with a victory in Kapalua.
The other winners on the PGA Tour are Ryan Palmer, Bill Haas, Ben Crane,Dustin Johnson, Cameron Beckman and Hunter Mahan.
“It’s not an oddity or a coincidence. It’s only an oddity when you have 25winners in 25 tournaments,” British Open champion Stewart Cink said. Then headded with a wink and a smile, “Besides, I’m winning the next two.”
Stricker began his PGA Tour career when it was a big deal for any player towin more than four times in one season. Nick Price (six wins in 1994) was theonly player to do that in the 15 years before Woods showed up. Since then, Woodshas gone only three seasons when he didn’t win at least four times, one of thoseas a rookie in 1996 when he played only eight tournaments (and won two).
“He makes it look easy, but it’s not,” Stricker said. “But it’s good forthe game when we get both—a variety of winners, and it’s good when we get guyswho continuously win. Everyone loves David against Goliath. It’s good to havetop guys going down the stretch against a guy who doesn’t win as much.”
Two months into Woods’ infidelity break, it has been hard to identify thetop guys who win all the time.
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