WGC-BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL:PATIENCE AND putting will be Tiger Woods's watchwords as he attempts to extend his reign as world number one to 271 consecutive weeks and end his longest winless start to a PGA Tour season for 12 years.
The 34-year-old American could lose his number one crown to playing partner Lee Westwood or world number two Phil Mickelson, who tees it up with Rory McIlroy just four months after the 21-year-old showed him a clean pair of heels by carding that stunning final-round 62 in the Quail Hollow Championship.
But Woods did not seem overly stressed about the possibility of losing his crown on a course where he is bidding for his fifth consecutive victory and his eighth since 1999.
And while he admits that much will depend on his misfiring putting stroke, he’s prepared to wait as long as it takes for his game to come around.
Just outside the eight automatic qualifiers for the US Ryder Cup side and a lowly 111th in the FedExCup points standings, Woods assessed his unimpressive statistics and dismissed them as he stroked his goatee.
Asked if he felt any sense of urgency with the final major of the season coming up next week, he said: “No. Just be patient. Keep working, keep going. I’ve been through periods like this before.
“I’ve just got to keep being patient, keep working, keep building and putting the pieces together and when the do fall into place, that’s usually when I win a few tournaments.”
As for the threat to his number one ranking posed by Mickelson and Westwood, he smiled and said: “Am I conscious of the pack closing in? Yes, because every tournament you guys remind me.”
But the threat is not a motivation.
“No, you just keep playing. You play and how I got here was playing golf tournaments and winning golf tournaments.
“And how I will sustain it is by winning golf tournaments. Winning golf tournaments takes care of a lot of things and being number one is one of them.”
Woods is 13 years older than McIlroy, who confessed that his patience ran out with 27 holes to play in last week’s 3 Irish Open in Killarney.
The young Ulsterman’s probable Ryder Cup partner, Graeme McDowell, suggested earlier this week that his close friend would do well to take a leaf out of the Pádraig Harrington book of grinding.
“Rory’s a big-stage player and the second that he loses that little bit of adrenaline from being in the mix, he loses his edge,” McDowell said.
“I think he is the kind of guy who thrives on being under pressure but the second that goes out of his system, he struggles. If you put Pádraig Harrington’s X Factor, his stubbornness, into Rory, the guy is number one in the world in two years. No doubt about it. The guy is that good.”
But McIlroy insisted he is who he is and can’t change his spots.
“Everyone is different and I know that I can catch myself sometimes losing some interest but for me that is the way I am,” said McIlroy after a practice round at a soft Firestone, where he was joined on the back nine by Angel Cabrera. “I go some weeks when I’ve got it and I go some weeks I don’t and I lost a lot of interest over the weekend there at the Irish Open.
“There is something about the Irish Open and it’s an environment that I don’t really feel comfortable in. Everyone wants you to win it almost more than you do. It would be great to win it, but I’ll live if I never do.”
McIlroy insisted that motivation won’t be a problem over the next two weeks as he heads from Akron to Wisconsin for next week’s US PGA.
“They’re two huge weeks with a World Golf Championship and a Major so they don’t really get bigger than that,” he said. “It would be nice to have a really good go at it next week in the US PGA but it would be great to have a good go at this one, as well.
“It’s a great draw for me to be playing alongside Phil but I would be very happy winning here and coming second in the PGA.”
McDowell partners Pádraig Harrington for the first two rounds in Akron, where the Dubliner hopes to seal his Ryder Cup place by improving on last season’s runner-up finish to Woods.
A victory worth €1.06 million would see him leap from 10th to third in the Ryder Cup rankings and end his two-year wait for a win. And his Ryder Cup team-mate Ian Poulter was certainly encouraged by what he saw of the Dubliner in the Irish Open last weekend.
“It’s good timing for the Ryder Cup side and it’s good timing for Pádraig himself because two years without a win is a very long time to wait considering his last three wins were Majors,” said Poulter, who insisted a “gutsy” Harrington will be vital to Europe at Celtic Manor. “He had such an amazing 18-month spell but then to see him get back in contention again is great to see.”
THE LOWDOWN
Course: South Course, Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio.
Length: 7,400 yards. Par: 70.
Prizemoney: €6.46 million, (€1.06 million for the winner).
Format: Four-day, no-cut, 72-hole strokeplay competition
Layout: The signature hole is the 16th, 677 yards long, where a long-iron second is needed to avoid the creek and stay short of the pond that protects small green.
Field: 81.
Defending champion: Tiger Woods.
Weather forecast: Thunderstorms today. Tomorrow and Saturday cloudy but warm. Sunny on Sunday.
Time difference: Ohio is five hours behind Ireland.
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