Associated Press
Wednesday, August 23

AKRON, Ohio -- Tiger Woods was so drained after his dynamic duel with Bob May to win the PGA Championship that he stayed home in Florida an extra day to relax and recharge his batteries.

For Woods, that meant lying on the couch with the television remote in hand, going to neighbor Mark O'Meara's house for tacos -- and still finding a little bit of time to figure out what went wrong last week at Valhalla.

It was a great finish, but not a perfect one.

"As I said, my two drives were a wonderful 3-wood and driver -- 50 yards right and 50 yards left," Woods said Wednesday. "So, I had to work on a few things. That's going back to my swing plane. Just trying to get that a little bit better."

Just what everyone else needs.

Woods is coming off perhaps the greatest summer in golf, winning the last three major championships with a record score under par. Yet, he is not satisfied.

Woods has finished out of the top 10 only three times this year, and two have come in his first tournament after winning majors. The NEC Invitational, a 37-man field that begins Thursday at Firestone Country Club, should be a little different.

For one thing, Woods is only four days removed from a final round in which he played his final 15 holes in 8-under, with birdies on the last two holes to get into a playoff and then one putt on each of three playoff holes to hold off a spirited challenge from May.

The stakes at Firestone are high, a $5 million purse in the World Golf Championship event. And the field is no slouch, despite Europe changing its rule and eliminating top players such as Jesper Parnevik and Sergio Garcia.

"It makes things a little bit easier to adjust and get your mind ready and focused to play in a tournament, especially in a golf course like this," Woods said.

A year ago, Woods had a 62 in the third round to build a five-stroke lead, then hung on for a one-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson. It was the springboard toward Woods winning his last four PGA Tour events of the year.

Is he up for an encore?

"The year is not over yet," he said. "I still would like to win a few more tournaments this year and play well. I still need to finish out the season."

Win or not, Woods has another streak on the line. Dating to a first-round 73 in the Byron Nelson Classic, he has played his last 27 rounds on the PGA Tour at par or better. The record since the tour began keeping such statistics in 1980 is 28, belonging to O'Meara and Craig Stadler.

More than anything, that illustrates the dominance Woods has enjoyed. The only question is: How long he can keep it up?

"As long as he wants to, really," said Darren Clarke, who beat Woods in the finals of the Match Play Championship. "He's not going to win every one all the time. As well as playing well, you need that little bit of luck. And sometimes, that doesn't happen all the time, no matter how good you are."

Thomas Bjorn, a distant runner-up to Woods in the British Open, thinks otherwise, especially after a player with so little major championship experience nearly beat him in the PGA.

"He is by far the best player in the world, and he does things that nobody else can do," Bjorn said. "He's on a confidence ride at the moment that is unbelievable, and I think that's what makes him stand out that much. But this won't keep going. He'll run into trouble, and he'll start losing tournaments."

Bjorn is among three dozen players who will have a chance to beat him at Firestone. He also is among five European players who might not have been here except for a change in qualifications by his tour.

While the NEC was designed only for Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team members, the European Tour decided to send its top 12 from the money list in the non-Ryder Cup years.

Enter players like Bjorn, Phillip Price, Gary Orr, Paul McGinley and Ian Woosnam. Missing are two players in the top 15 in the world -- Garcia and Parnevik, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this year.

Among those who have criticized the change are Greg Norman. He's not affected by European decisions, but it was Norman who first proposed a world tour in 1994 with hopes of bringing the best players together more often.

"I think it's a crying shame," Norman said. "This is a World Golf Championship. There are players that should be in this tournament. And I think there's got to be some serious dialogue behind the scenes to make sure that this never happens again."