EUROPEAN TOUR:TIGER WOODS will try to feed off happy memories at this week's Dubai Desert Classic when he takes on the two players who have overtaken him in the world rankings.
“Last time I played in a pairing like this was the US Open in ’08 and we had a lot of fun,” Woods said yesterday.
For “fun” you can also take him to mean “success”. That was the week he went on to capture his 14th and last major despite having only one good leg at the time.
For Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott back then, now read Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Woods – and this is the first time since 1994 that the sport’s three leading lights have competed at a regular European Tour event.
But while Kaymer could take top spot off Westwood with a top-two finish on Sunday, the best Woods can do even if he wins is get back to number two.
How times have changed.
The 35-year-old is also still working on swing changes since he took on Sean Foley as his new coach at the US PGA Championship last August.
Those changes appeared to be bearing fruit when he led his last event of 2010 by four shots with a round to go, but Graeme McDowell beat him in a play-off, and two weeks ago at Torrey Pines – which staged the 2008 US Open – he managed only 44th place.
“Sean and I are sticking with the game plan and I’m just trying to get better each and every week,” Woods added. “I’m putting the pieces together and we had some good things happen the last time I played. It was nice to have some things show up that I had not had in practice.
“We were able to identify it and work on it. I feel a lot more comfortable now.”
For his part, Rory McIlroy will aim less at the flagsticks this week as he attempts to end a two-year wait for a second European Tour win, after victory here in 2009.
The world number seven is returning to competition for the first time since finishing runner-up to Kaymer in Abu Dhabi three weeks ago.
While McIlroy won the Quail Hollow Championship on the US Tour in North Carolina last May, his one and only victory on the European circuit came at the 2009 Dubai Classic.
“I’m working a little bit on strategy, working a bit on the swing and basically just trying to develop into a more mature golfer,” the 21-year-old said.
“In 2000 and 2001 Tiger Woods was giving himself over 15 chances at a birdie on average every round he played and that was on some very tough courses,” added McIlroy. “So you’ll see me playing away from the pins more and knowing when it’s a good time to be aggressive and when it’s a good time to go for the middle of the green.”
McIlroy will play in the same group as Rhys Davies of Wales and Italian Edoardo Molinari in the first two rounds.
McIlroy is joined in Dubai by compatriots Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke, who play together, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane and Michael Hoey.
Westwood is also searching for some form after kicking off his year with a 64th place in Abu Dhabi – 26 shots behind runaway winner Kaymer – and a missed cut in Qatar last week.
He thinks it goes back to the torn calf muscle he suffered last summer.
“Since June I think the longest practise session I’ve done has been about an hour-and-a-half due to injury,” he said. “I’ve just not been able to put that kind of weight through my leg.
“It’s still not quite right, but it’s good enough now that I can stand up there on the range and hit balls for three-and-a-half or four hours and that’s what I’ve been able to do the last couple of days really.
“The first part of the year was consumed with working out and getting into shape and I didn’t really have much time to work on my game.
“When you are playing well and you’re playing regularly and just ticking over you can keep the rhythm in your swing. But over Christmas I had a break and hardly hit balls for six weeks and just lost that rhythm a little bit.
“You go back to your faults and that’s what’s happened the last couple of weeks. I needed to do a little bit of work on that and my game feels like it’s almost ready to go this week.”
Woods is the only one of the trio to have won at the Emirates Club.
Meanwhile, yesterday Woods was joined in the pro-am by Liet Col Michael Rowells, who said he was more nervous about playing with Woods than he is doing military service in Afghanistan.
The US army officer, a nine-handicapper, was among 16,000 amateurs around the world who registered for the Woods pro-am competition.
Rowells, on a 12-month deployment at Bagram Air Base, won the draw and was granted permission to travel from Kabul to take his place alongside the former world number one.
“The air base at Bagram has come under rocket attack but I never think about the danger as I’m not a person who really gets nervous,” he said.
“But standing on the opening tee today with all those TV cameras and photographers and all the crowd watching to see how I would hit the golf ball, I was a lot more nervous than for anything I’ve ever faced in Afghanistan.”
Howells said Woods put him at ease. “We first met on the practice putting green and he walked over and introduced himself,” said the 47-year-old. “He was just so nice and so open.
“I was worried I would be very nervous in his company but he was just great. He was completely open, friendly and a true class act and the way he interacted with the crowd was fantastic.
”He just made the experience for me that much better.”
Dubai Desert Classic
Course: Majilis, Emirates Golf Club
Length: 7,301 yards. Par: 72.
Prizemoney: €1.7 million, €301,353 for the winner
Field: Extremely strong.
Defending champion: Miguel Angel Jiménez beat Lee Westwood in a play-off.
First played: 1989.
Most wins: 3 – Ernie Els, 1994, 2002,2005.
Course: Regarded as tough but fair, water comes into play on 10 holes
On TV: Sky Sports 1, 6-9am, 10.30am-1.30pm.
Weather: Chance of showers today.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)