No one is infallible on a golf course, but Tiger Woods is doing a pretty good impression of someone who doesn't know how to lose. The world number one's win in the US Tour's season-opening Mercedes Championship - in which he beat Ernie Els in a play-off at Kapalua in Hawaii - is his fifth successive tournament victory, his eighth in 11 outings since last June and one which has pushed him to third in the all-time career money list at the ripe old age of 24.
Woods claims he is not interested in "the streak", the longest on the US Tour in 52 years since Ben Hogan won five consecutive tournaments in 1948. "This is a once-off," he remarked of his latest win.
Only the legendary Byron Nelson, who had 11 straight wins in the 1945 season, can lay claims to a hotter streak. And, although he would prefer to ignore it, Woods is resigned to the fact that all the hype will explode again in the build-up to his next tournament, which will probably be the Pebble Beach Pro-Am next month when he starts the West Coast Swing that will take him up to the US Masters. Since turning professional, Woods has had to live with hype, but it can scarcely be said to have affected him: in 71 events as a professional he has won 16 times, and he has finished no worse than seventh in his last 15 tournaments. Certainly, Woods feels he is more capable than most of dealing with the expectations: "I've learnt how to cope with it, how to deal with all the changes I've gone through since turning professional, not only on the golf course but just in life in general," he explained.
"To come out of it with the experience I have now will make what I'm doing now a little bit easier, on and off the course."
Woods' latest win, achieved when he holed a 40-foot birdie putt at the second tie hole to fend off Els, has sent a chilling reminder to the rest of the US Tour not only of his ability, if that were ever needed, but also that he is starting out in 2000 as hungry as he ever was.
"I don't know for the other players, but it definitely feels like I'm still improving, still hitting better shots," he said. Yet, despite enjoying the hottest streak in half a century on the US Tour, Woods still feels there is some room for improvement. In fact, he has decided to take a break that will possibly extend to four weeks (up to Pebble Beach): "I would like to be able to go home and practise and reset my golf swing and actually make a follow-through."
Woods, meanwhile, has thrown his weight behind a move by the US commissioner, Tim Finchem, to change the end to the tour season. Although the WGC-American Express championship will again conclude matters this year (on both the US Tour and the European Tour), plans are afoot to change the schedule for 2001 with the event moving in directly ahead of the Tour Championship in America and the Volvo Masters in Europe. "That's the way it should be," he said. There will be no Woods in Honolulu this week for the $2.9 million Sony Open, which will give someone else a chance to collect a title. Els will be seeking to make swift amends for his play-off defeat to Woods, but also in the field is Bray's Keith Nolan, who will be playing his first full tour event in two years.
