Tiger Woods bids to underline return to form

WHILE Martin Laird enjoys one final reward for breaking into the top 50 this year, all eyes will be on tournament host Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge, which gets underway today at Sherwood Country Club just outside Los Angeles.

Scot Laird is flying the European flag along with Paul Casey in the event which former world No 1 Woods has claimed four times in the past.

If he were to do so again on Sunday, it would see him lay down a significant marker heading into 2012.

Woods hasn’t won for more than two years – a run of 26 official events without a victory. A year ago, he took a four-shot lead into the final round of this tournament only to lose out in a play-off after being caught by Graeme McDowell.

The American missed the cut in this year’s final major, the USPGA Championship in Atlanta, and has been in freefall in the world rankings over the past few months as he pays the price for being unable to match his successes of previous years.

He missed out on the end-of-season FedEx Cup in America and, simply to stop the rust setting in, found himself playing in an event, the Frys.com Open, that wouldn’t normally have come up on his radar.

Yet, on the back of two performances in Australia, where he finished third in the Australian Open and then helped USA win the President’s Cup, Woods has given himself the chance of salvaging something from another troubled year.

In six of his last seven stroke-play rounds, he has signed for 68 or lower. In his singles tie at Royal Melbourne, he was heading for a score in the mid-60s, picking up six birdies in the 15 holes he needed to beat Aaron Baddeley and clinch victory for his side.

The swing changes he has been working on with coach Sean Foley appear to be coming together, having been a work in progress a year ago.

“I had one shot only – a draw – and that was it,” said Woods. “I couldn’t hit a fade. What we were working on at the time limited me to only hitting one golf shot.”

In Australia, Woods was back to being able to produce his full repertoire – most of the time. The one real blot on his copybook was a three-over-par 75 in the third round of the Australian Open at The Lakes in Sydney, but he bounced back with a closing 67 to finish just two shots behind Greg Chalmers.

This week, the 14-times major champion is up against 17 players, all from the world’s top 50. The host just scraped in himself, having been 49th at the cut-off point before dropping to 52nd at present.

McDowell isn’t defending his title. The commute from California to Dubai, where the European Tour stages its end-of-season bash next week, is something he didn’t fancy and that’s perfectly understandable.

It’s the same reason world No 1 Luke Donald, as well as Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, are in South Africa instead this week for the Nedbank Challenge, which also starts today.

In fact, in addition to Laird and Casey, K J Choi is the only other non-American in the field for Tiger’s event this time around.

But that won’t concern the host. To win this week, he’ll have to beat a whole host of compatriots playing at the top of their game at the moment.

Take Keegan Bradley, for instance. Eyebrows may have been raised when he sprang a shock to win the USPGA Championship in August, but he has since left this year’s other three major winners – Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke – trailing in his wake to triumph in the Grand Slam event in Bermuda.

Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland, fresh from joining forces to win for America at the World Cup in China, are also in the field, as is Webb Simpson, who made Donald pull out all the stops in the final event to just pip him for the PGA Tour money-list title.

Woods turns 36 next month and it’s interesting to note that there are only three players older than him in this week’s line-up – Choi, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker.

Youngsters like Bradley, McIlroy and Simpson will already be relishing the next round of majors, but so, too, will Woods if he can end his 2011 campaign with a flourish. So what might once have been regarded as an exhibition event has taken on a lot more significance.

First prize is $1.2 million – $500,000 less than the winner will pick up in South Africa – with even last place earning $140,000.

Having already earned close to $2.7m this season – and that doesn’t include the cheque he banked for helping Scotland finish fourth in last week’s World Cup – it’s a chance for Laird to help himself to a tidy Christmas bonus.