Tour news Accenture World MatchplayFor the world's number one golfer, there is only one philosophy. "If you show up at a tournament," remarked Tiger Woods ahead of this week's Accenture World Matchplay at La Costa, "your goal is to win that tournament, plain and simple.
I can't see how you cannot have that attitude and not have that drive because if you show up just to play, then there's no reason in showing up. I show up to win and that's my goal."
Woods, indeed, is the defending champion at this first WGC event of the year and it is a testimony to his predatory instincts for top prizes that he is also the only player to have garnered a career slam of the four titles under the WGC umbrella.
Indeed, Darren Clarke - who, along with Padraig Harrington, is also in the select field based on the world rankings - is the only other multiple winner, having won this title in 2000 and the NEC Invitational last August.
Harrington, who has slipped to 12th in the latest world rankings, is in the same "bracket" as Woods in the matchplay draw - a position brought about after Ernie Els withdrew from the championship so he could be at home in London for his daughter starting school - but actually opens his campaign against Japan's Toshimitsu Izawa. Clarke, meanwhile, faces a first-round encounter with Argentina's Eduardo Romero.
Of the Irish players in the 64-man field, Clarke, now ranked 13th in the world, has much the better record at La Costa with Harrington not finding the poa annua greens to his liking on past visits. Yet, unlike his decision of last year to give the Volvo PGA a miss because of his dislike for the Wentworth greens in May, there was no inclination to avoid the World Matchplay. Harrington, Clarke and Woods fly on to next week's Dubai Desert Classic after La Costa.
Clarke reached the quarter-finals in this tournament last year where he was beaten by Australian Peter Lonard, while Harrington's interest ended in the second round when he lost to American Scott Hoch.
As defending champion, Woods will be attempting to re-ignite the form of last year when he beat David Toms in the final. "Of all of last year, that is by far the best I played," he insisted. "I drove the ball beautifully. I controlled my irons pretty good and, above all, I really putted well. That's what you have to do in matchplay, you have to be able to putt well in order to win."
In Sunday's final round of the Nissan Open at Riviera - where Mike Weir successfully defended his title, claiming a one stroke winning margin over Shigeki Maruyama - Woods finally gave a hint that his form was returning, even if he did observe afterwards that (to win), "you have to play good for all four days, and I haven't done that".
Still, his closing round 64 moved him up 37 places to finish in tied-seventh, his third top-10 finish of the season in three appearances.
And, although his Ryder Cup record is nothing to write home about, Woods likes the challenge of matchplay, even if he claimed "it takes its toll on your body. You play two or three practice rounds, and then you get to the finals, you have played quite a few rounds of golf and you are a little fatigued. And especially, La Costa, if it does rain, which it did last year, your legs are a little sore and a little tired because of all the soft ground and, I guess, sucking at your feet the entire time. That takes a toll on you.
"I don't think it's the five days in a row that really gets to anybody. I think it's the fact of the emotional ups and downs of matchplay, and anyone can beat anybody at any given time. You are dealing with 64 of the best players in the world, so anybody can beat anybody. It makes it that much more difficult, because you can go out there and play well, shoot six or seven under par and you are going home.
"So I think it's the ups and downs emotionally that comes with turning a tide, turning the tide on a shot, turning the tide on a putt, making a big par putt - the momentum changes. The deflation of somebody placing it in the trees, making a miraculous birdie - you are in there tight and you miss. All these different changes emotionally end up taking a pretty good toll on you."
Weir, the fourth seed, heads into the championship on the back of successfully defending the Nissan Open. The Canadian - who had won his previous six US Tour events from behind - saw a seven-shot lead disappear by the 12th hole of his final round at Riviera, but he executed an exquisite pitch from rough on the 72nd hole, almost holing out, to finish on 17-under-par 267 and take the $864,000 top prize.
There are 15 European players in the field at La Costa, with Harrington and Clarke joined by Thomas Bjorn, Paul Casey, Alex Cejka, Brian Davis, Niclas Fasth, Sergio Garcia, Fredrik Jacobson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter, Phillip Price, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood.
EUROPEAN TOUR ORDER OF MERIT (Irish positions) - 15th, P Harrington 100,658; 56th, D Clarke 27,248; 61st, P Lawrie €23,667; 64th, P McGinley €21,498; 74th, G Murphy 17,565; 90th, G McDowell 13,057; 132nd, D McGrane 5,864.
