Tiger will be an even greater draw as defending champion at Mount Juliet, writes Philip Reid.
Finally, towards the season's end, the roar was back, louder than it had been all year, in fact. Tiger Woods's win in the American Express World Championship in Atlanta - remarkably, his eighth in 15 WGC events - not only propelled him to the top of the US Tour's moneylist, and lengthened to a 217th consecutive week his position as the world's number one, but also generated some purring among golfing cats in the vicinity of Mount Juliet, Co Kilkenny.
What it means is that Woods will head to the AmEx tournament there next year as defending champion, which is as big a marketing coup as those involved in promoting the $7 million event could have wished for.
Of more immediate relevance to Woods, however, is that this fifth win of the season - admittedly one without a major success - puts him in line for a fifth successive Player of the Year Award on the US Tour.
"Right now, it is still kind of up for grabs," insisted Woods of the award's destination, "because if (Mike Weir) Weirsy or (Jim) Furyk or Vijay (Singh), any of those guys wins the Tour Championship, they have a chance to win. Or even Davis (Love), so a lot of things can happen at that last tournament."
The Tour Championship, the final counting event on the US Tour, takes place at the Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, on November 6th-9th.
Despite his failure to win a major in 2003, the yardstick by which he really judges the success of a season and the first time since 1998 that he has experienced a drought, Woods remarked after this latest success that it was "the next best thing".
He explained: "You're playing against a better field (compared to a regular tour event). It's right off the world rankings. You can't get better than that. It's most challenging (to win) because you get the guys who are the best players in the field, it's not a watered down field. These are the strongest, and that's what makes it so difficult to win."
However, Woods did stress the point that, even if the WGC events are just a step below those of a major, the pressure is not the same when coming down the stretch when compared to "the last couple of holes at the Masters or the British Open or the US Open or the (US) PGA . . . it's tough, it's hard to swallow, (and) a little bit different atmosphere."
Woods, who started the final round with a two-shot advantage, finished with a two-over 72 but still won by three shots from Stuart Appleby, Tim Herron and Vijay Singh. The key to his win, his first since July, was switching to a new Nike Ignite driver.
"I wanted to take advantage of the technology advances and I'm pretty excited about this. I've started shaping the ball again and hitting some nice high draws. I'm just like any other golfer, always trying to try and find something a little better."
This win brought Woods more statistical records. He became the first player in US Tour history to win five times in five consecutive seasons - Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson had been tied with him at four wins in four successive seasons - and he leapfrogged Singh in the race for this year's money title, bringing his earnings to $6,278,746, some $171,239 ahead of the Fijian. It was the 10th successful title defence of his career.
While Woods, who hadn't played since the Deutsche Bank in Boston the week after the US PGA before returning to the circuit in Atlanta, again puts his feet up this week, Darren Clarke remains in the US to play in the Las Vegas Invitational - Lee Westwood, who had sought an invitation, didn't get into the field - and the Irishman's quest to overhaul Ernie Els in the race for the European Tour Order of Merit now looks to be a forlorn one.
To overtake the South African, who won't play in another European Tour counting event, Clarke would have to win both the Madrid Open and the Volvo Masters, the season-ending tournament in Valderrama. Clarke trails Els by €816,248 in that race.
For Padraig Harrington, there was some encouragement in Atlanta that his game has finally started to come around. In closing with a 66 for tied-sixth place, and securing his first top-10 finish since the US Open in Chicago, Harrington remarked: "My game's getting back into shape. I've worked hard on my mental game and that has helped."
Harrington won't play again until the Madrid Open in three weeks, and then follows up with the Volvo Masters, the Seve Trophy - as things stand, he and Clarke are the only Irish players in line for places - in Valencia and, then, the World Cup, where he teams up with Paul McGinley, at Kiawah Island.
After that, Harrington will finish his year by playing a couple of lucrative, non-counting events, the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City (where the $2 million winner's cheque is the biggest in golf) and then the defence of the Williams World Challenge in the US.
This week's European Tour action takes place in Hilversum, where the Dutch Open will be defended by Germany's Tobias Dier. There are five Irish players in the field: Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Ronan Rafferty, Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy.
Irish Rankings
VOLVO ORDER OF MERIT
2, D Clarke €2,159,126
3, P Harrington €1,417,335
31, P McGinley €609,171
50, P Lawrie €402,866
56, G Murphy €338,309
89, G McDowell €221,909
140, D McGrane €121,152
171, R Rafferty €54,911
WORLD RANKINGS:10, P Harrington; 13, D Clarke; 127, P McGinley; 200, G McDowell; 211, G Murphy; 224, P Lawrie.
