Woods primed for 2014 major challenge

THOUSAND OAKS: Tiger Woods will once again seek to use his World Challenge tournament as a springboard into a new year that he hopes will see his major championship drought end.

After a 2013 season that included five victories -- but no additions to his 14 major titles -- the world number one says his goals for the coming season haven't changed.

"Whatever tournament I play in, the goals are still the same -- keep improving.

"I feel like I've improved this year over the previous year. Won five times this year, I think that's a pretty good number. No one (else) did that this year."

"I certainly wish I could have played a little better in major championships," added Woods, who shared fourth at Augusta National and sixth at the British Open but wasn't a factor at the US Open or PGA Championship.

"I was there at the Masters and there at the British certainly with a chance, but just didn't get it done. The other two I just didn't play well," he said.

Woods, chasing the record of 18 major victories by Jack Nicklaus, hasn't won one of golf's Grand Slam events since the 2008 US Open.

But he has won on three of 2014's major courses: Augusta National, British Open venue Hoylake and PGA Championship course Valhalla.

He also has a third place and runner-up finish at US Open host course Pinehurst in the last two editions of the US Open held there, noting his results there were "trending in the right way."

Woods spoke on the eve of the $3.5 million World Challenge, which he hosts for the benefit of his charitable foundation.

The tournament isn't part of an official tour but does offer world ranking points and a first prize of $1 million to the winner from an 18-man field that includes Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and defending champion Graeme McDowell, England's Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter and rising US star Jordan Spieth.

Woods has won the tournament five times, most recently in 2011. That triumph ended a victory drought of more than two years during which personal scandal sensationally saw his marriage end.

There's a valedictory feel to this year's event at Sherwood Country Club, the course nestled in rolling hills west of Los Angeles that has hosted all but the first of 15 editions of the event, which next year will be staged in Florida.

"It is going to be emotional. There is no doubt about it," Woods said. "Sherwood, the board here, all the volunteers that come out and support us ... Sherwood has been fantastic over the years."

Woods said schedule changes, including the evolution of the US PGA Tour playoffs and the European Tour's Race to Dubai, made it ever harder to lure top players.

He hopes a move next year to Isleworth near Orlando will make it easier for Florida-based golfers to accept invitations.

"It was certainly not an easy decision, but there are a lot of players that are based there in Florida," he said.

That includes Northern Ireland's McDowell, who notched his second victory at Sherwood last year to go with his 2010 triumph and a runner-up finish in 2009.

While he will miss Sherwood, McDowell said the move would geographically "work for me."

"I think it's also great maybe that this tournament will reinvent itself," he said. "It always attracts a great field and taking it outside of Sherwood will create a bit of a buzz and a bit of interest."

Wiser McIlroy looks forward to 2014

THOUSAND OAKS: Rory McIlroy insists he didn't "need" a win, but he had to admit -- it felt pretty good.

The two-time major winner from Northern Ireland started 2013 at the top of the golf world.

But he endured a frustrating season before finally finding his way to the winner's circle for the first time in more than 12 months at the Australian Open last week.

McIlroy did it in style, overhauling Masters champion Adam Scott with a final-round 66 to win by a stroke.

"Did I need the win? Probably not," McIlroy said Wednesday as he prepared to tee it up Thursday in the World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods.

"Was it nice to get the win? Of course. But I felt like I saw enough good golf in there to know that it was very close, and it wasn't going to be long before I did win.

"What I was happy with the most was the limited amount of times that I have gotten in contention this year, I have played well. I have played well down the stretch. I've played well under pressure."

As the disappointing finishes piled up, however, those nuances were lost on many of McIlroy's critics, who questioned decision to switch to new equipment and even his dedication to the game.

Finding a way to tune out that chatter was part of what he learned this year, McIlroy said.

"It's hard not to listen to it," he said. "But you have to try to block it out and not listen to it.

"It's the first year I've really had that much criticism and scrutiny. I feel like I've learned to deal with it much better."

McIlroy said he'd found it particularly unproductive to follow feedback from the public on such sites as Twitter too closely.

"What I feel like I've learned this year is they think that your good is better than what it is, and they think your bad is worse than what it is... there's no real balance in it.

"So there is no point in getting carried away with the hype, and no point in getting carried away with the criticism either."

In any case, McIlroy said, he's always his own worst critic, although he's trying to lighten up.

In particular, he's trying to appreciate the value of scraping a decent score, even if the game itself isn't great.

"The thing I need to remember is it doesn't have to be pretty all the time," he said. "That is something I need to do a little bit more of -- need to play the ugly golf better and manage my game better so when I'm not playing that well, I can still shoot around par or a couple under."

After this week's unofficial event, which features an elite 18-man field headed by tournament host Woods, McIlroy will take a few weeks off before heading out for tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Although he's looking forward to the break, he wants to start off sharp in 2014.

"I'm just going to keep on top of my mechanics a little more, my golf swing," he said. "Make sure when I come out to the new season that there's nothing that has to be worked on that much."

Golf deeper than ever, and most are in Thousand Oaks

THOUSAND OAKS — Tiger Woods believes it's harder than ever to win on the PGA Tour because of the increasing depth of talent of the players.

And most of them are at his tournament this week.

The World Challenge gets underway Thursday, held at Sherwood Country Club for the last time, and the field is so strong that the entire 18-man field is in the top 30 in the world ranking. That's what makes it difficult to win trophies.

And what's why Woods laughs at using the phrase "pretty good" to describe a year in which he won five times on the PGA Tour.

"I think it's deeper now than it ever has been," Woods said. "There is more young talent. There are more guys winning golf tournaments for the first time. If you look at the major championships, how long did we go from basically Phil winning and Phil winning?"

He was referring to the 13 majors played between Phil Mickelson winning the 2010 Masters and the British Open this year. Eleven of those champions had never won a major, the exceptions being Ernie Els and Rory McIlroy.

Of those 11 first-time major champions, only Darren Clarke has fallen lower than No. 40 in the world.

"It's more difficult to win events now," Woods said.

He pointed to advancements in equipment, particularly from wood drivers and wound golf balls. Woods says the younger players who hit the ball high "are shocked to see the ball get moved by the wind."

"For a lot of us who grew up playing balata balls, you wanted to get that thing down. You didn't want it up in that wind because it got pushed around like you wouldn't believe," he said. "It's a totally different game. Guys have evolved, and I think they've become much more aggressive now than they ever used to be because of equipment."

Separating the best players is getting more difficult.

Graeme McDowell set a target to get back into the top five in the world at the start of the season. He wanted a certain amount of world ranking points that he figured would do the trick, and he about reached that level. Little did he know that so many other players also raised the level of their game.

"It's fun to be part of it," McDowell said.

Woods dominated the PGA Tour with five wins against five tough fields, which also gave him another Vardon Trophy and money title. Henrik Stenson became the first player to win the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour and the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.

Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson had multiple wins around the world that included historic majors — Scott was the first Australian in a green jacket at Augusta National, Mickelson won a British Open that not even he thought he could ever win.

Jordan Spieth finished No. 7 in the FedEx Cup even though he didn't have status on the PGA Tour at the start of the year. Hideki Matsuyama became the first rookie to win the Japan Golf Tour money title, and he didn't even turn pro until April.

And this list of characters doesn't include McIlroy, who began the year at No. 1 and is just now starting to emerge from a slump.

"You've got to play really well to win," McIlroy said. "I think that's why you see so many first-time winners, because the field is so deep, and it is tough to win out here. But I think golf is in great shape."

Comparing eras is never easy, though Woods detected a big difference from a generation ago.

At the end of the 1990s and early in the 2000s, golf was strong at the top — Woods, David Duval, Mickelson, Els, Vijay Singh. But there was a reasonable gap between the biggest stars and the next level. From 1999 through 2002, there was a massive gap between Woods and the other stars.

Woods said a player now has to be consistent to be among the best.

The World Challenge is the end of the year for the majority of the field — a few players are headed to Thailand next week — and it should set the table for a fascinating season in 2014. Stenson and Scott will try to sustain their excellence, along with a newcomer such as Spieth.

Woods said that he still looks at the way players hit the ball to determine who has game, though the direction is different. When he first joined the tour in 1996, it was players who could work the ball both ways. Now he looks at the players who can maneuver the trajectory.

"You don't see shot-makers like you used to. The ball doesn't curve like it used to," Woods said. "It just doesn't move as much. But you look at the guys who are pretty good players at the top. They cannot really shape the golf ball necessarily, but they can move their trajectory up and down. I think that's where the shape has changed. They don't shape it as much from right to left, but more in altitude."

After this year, the tournament is going through a change in latitude.

This is the 14th year the World Challenge is held at Sherwood, a Jack Nicklaus design with emerald fairways set against the brown foothills of the Santa Monica mountains. The Tiger Woods Foundation announced last month that it is moving to Isleworth outside Orlando.

Tiger motivated by Snead, Nicklaus and kids

As Tiger Woods eyes the twilight of a remarkable career, he has his sights on records posted by Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead and a growing pleasure that his children are starting to understand what he does on the course.

World No 1 Woods, comfortably the greatest player of his generation, has long targeted the 18 major titles claimed by fellow American Nicklaus and the 82 career victories piled up on the PGA Tour by the sweet-swinging Snead.

Woods, who celebrates his 38th birthday at the end of this month, trails Nicklaus's record mark by four and Snead's milestone by three.

Yet just as significant for Woods as he contemplates his 'bucket list' of future golfing achievements is the burgeoning knowledge of his two children, daughter Sam and son Charlie, for what he does for a living.

"It's exciting for me to have my two kids now starting to understand what Daddy does," Woods told Reuters on Wednesday as he prepared for Thursday's opening round of the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, which he hosts.

"It was cool for me this year for the first time to have Charlie there to watch me win. He understood it for the first time, that Daddy is always in the gym lifting weights to be able to get the ball out of the rough and out the trees.

"Or that's how he explains it," Woods added with a flash of his trademark smile.

Charlie was on site at Firestone Country Club in August when his father eased to a seven-shot victory at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, earning his 79th win on the PGA Tour.

"He gets it now," Woods said of his son. "He is excited about the game and he has even told me he wants to caddie for me one day. But that was never a reality until that event (at Firestone).

"So that gives me a little extra incentive to continue playing and continue working because they get so much enjoyment out of watching me on TV and playing."

While Snead's target is well within reach, the four majors Woods needs to draw level with Nicklaus represent a tally achieved by very few golfers in an entire career.

"Certainly the easier goal is going to be to get to Sam's record," Woods said, speaking on the balcony of the imposing clubhouse at Sherwood Country Club which hosts the World Challenge this week for a 14th and final time.

"You can get there basically from playing your first three events of the year and winning three in a row. But major championships, they're spread out a little bit. It's certainly much harder to get to Jack's number than Sam's.

"But both of them I regard as significant milestones and hopefully one day in my career I will surpass both of them. Certainly I'd like to continue winning for a long period of time. That's important to me."

Winning was a familiar habit for Woods during 2013 as he racked up a season-high five titles on the PGA Tour on the way to being voted Player of the Year, though he was unable to add to his career tally of 14 majors.

"I think it was a fantastic year, unfortunately I didn't win a major championship," said the 37-year-old who has come up empty in golf's blue riband events since his remarkable playoff victory at the 2008 US Open.

"I was close at the Masters (tied for fourth) and the British (Open where he shared sixth place). A couple of little swings here and there and it might have been a different story.

"But I won the Players (Championship) at a venue where I have struggled over the years, so to be able to put that together there was quite a good feeling. To win five times, and get Player of the Year again, that feels pretty good."

This week, Woods is especially excited to be back at the World Challenge, an event he has won five times and which raises money for Tiger Woods Foundation projects and the six learning centers he has set up in the United States.

More than 100,000 scholars have gone through the various learning centers since the first of them was opened in Anaheim, California in 2006.

"It's so important, what we have been to do and how we have been able to transform kids' lives and allow them the opportunity to go to college and provide them with mentors and internships," Woods said.

"And it's all because of this event, starting 15 years ago at Grayhawk (Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona) and now here.

"Sherwood has been an incredible venue over the years and without this event we quite frankly wouldn't have a learning center here in OrangeCounty, we wouldn't have had the ability to create other learning centers around the country."

The tournament moves to Florida next year.