DUBAI, 31 January 2008 — Tiger Woods isn’t slowly easing into the 2008 season after taking a rare break. He’s playing back-to-back tournaments — and flying halfway around the world to do it.
After a commanding win in California, Woods is feeling fresh and hoping for a fifth straight title in sunny, skyscraper-studded Dubai.
“It’s one of those things where I’ve always played pretty well coming off breaks, and you feel fresh and my practice sessions were pretty good,” Woods said yesterday at palm-tree lined Emirates Golf Club, where the $2.5 million Dubai Desert Classic gets under way today.
“Coming over here after playing well last week, (I’m) really looking forward to teeing it up this week and giving it a go.”
Woods’ dominant eight-stroke win Sunday at the Buick Invitational was his fourth straight and 62nd career title, tying Arnold Palmer for fourth place on the PGA Tour list. If he triumphs in Dubai, it will be his seventh win in eight starts, including victory in his own tournament, the Target World Challenge in December.
After working on his swing for months and taking a 10-week break following the Tour Championship and then another five weeks after Target, Woods has high hopes for 2008. Earlier this month, he declared that winning the Grand Slam in a calendar year is “easily within reason.”
Yesterday, Woods said if he controls his own play and peaks at the right times this year, the four majors are in reach.
“It’s about playing well at the right times. It’s about getting lucky actually. You have to have everything go your way,” he said.
But he also attributed his winning streak to years of making changes to his game.
“One of the reasons why I made the changes that I made is to get to this point,” he said before adding: “And the great thing is, we have a long way to go.”
But unlike the Buick Invitational, which Woods has won four years in a row, the Dubai Desert Classic has not always gone his way.
He is 1-for-4 here — and his win in 2006 didn’t come easily. Woods had to go birdie-birdie on the final two holes to get into a playoff with three-time champion Ernie Els. He defeated the South African on the first extra hole.
Poor putting troubled Woods, who finished third last year behind winner Henrik Stenson and Els.
Along with Els and Stenson, Woods will face some of the European Tour’s other top players, including money leader Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Colin Montgomerie, another former Dubai Desert Classic winner (1996) who will go head-to-head with Woods in the first two rounds.
Stenson, who is coming off of two second-place European Tour finishes in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, said it’s possible to beat Woods — by focusing on a good score, not the world’s top player.
“You have to believe it. I’ve done it once so I’ve sort of proven it myself that I’ve won a tournament where he played at least,” Stenson said.
The Emirates Golf Club is a lush green oasis in the middle of Dubai, a booming desert city in the United Arab Emirates. The club is surrounded by gleaming skyscrapers, towering construction cranes and traffic-clogged highways — but its jewel is the 7,211-yard, par-72 Majlis Course.
The weather is almost always warm and sunny on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and yesterday was no different.
Woods said the greens were a bit slower than in the past due to recent spate of rain, and the rough was up a touch.
“But all in all, the golf course is ... in perfect shape, and it is year-in and year-out,” he said.
Playing golf won’t be the only thing on Woods’ agenda in Dubai. In late 2006, Woods announced he was designing his first golf course in Dubai.
The course, called Al Ruwaya, which means serenity in Arabic, will be built in Dubailand, the region’s largest tourism and leisure project and will feature a 7,700-yard, par-72 course, golf academy, 320 exclusive villas and an 80-suite boutique hotel. It is expected to be completed next year.
Woods said he plans to visit the site during his stay. So far, the first two holes have been shaped.
“It’s been eye-opening, the detail that goes into it. I didn’t really realize that, but I’ve also loved it, too. I absolutely spend hours ... just looking at plans and thinking and creating,” Woods said.
Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are trying to establish themselves as a premier location for sports like golf and tennis, and other golfers have announced plans for courses in this city. Els launched his US$18 million, 7,538-yard links-style 18-hole golf course in Dubai Sports City on Monday. It will be open to the public in March.
Dubai also plans to host the richest golf tournament beginning next year with a prize fund of $10 million. The European Tour’s Dubai World Championship, to be held at another luxury golf club — the Jumeirah Golf Estates — also would include an annual $10 million bonus pool.
