Winning all the motivation Woods needs

2008-04-08

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By John NestorPA SportsTicker Golf Editor

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Ticker) - It doesn''t take much to motivateTiger Woods. Not a slight from a fellow player, not the mediaquestioning whether or not he can win a Grand Slam.

With the start of The Masters just two days away, Woods madewhat motivates him abundantly clear. He wants to come out ontop, and is not concerned with who he has to beat to do it.

"I love winning," Woods said. "I just love getting out there andmixing it up with the guys here. They are trying to beat me andI''m trying to beat them - that''s fun."

It may be fun for Woods, but not so much for the rest of thefield. Woods has won four times here - only Jack Nicklaus hasmore Masters titles (six) - and Woods is the heavy favorite toadd yet another green jacket to his collection.

"I feel pretty good. I''ve had some pretty good results here,"Woods said in a bit if an understatement. "Certain venues, ifyou look over my career, I''ve had some nice results, andcertainly this is one of them."

He''s also had his share of disappointments here, too.

Woods'' last win at Augusta National was in 2005, when he edged agame Chris DiMarco in a playoff. He tied for third in 2006 andtied for second last year, the victim of a balky putter.

A shot here or there, and Woods might be playing for his fourthMasters title in a row, but as Woods knows, a shot here andthere makes all the difference.

"You have to have a lot of things come together in order to wina championship and more so major championships," Woods said."One break where you hit a tree and it goes out of play anddidn''t come back in or it happens to catch the right slope orcatches the right gust of winds - all of these little factorsthat come in just one time is the difference between winning andlosing.

"It really is hard to quantify that to people. Even asknowledgeable as Hank (Haney) is, he''s seen me play umpteenholes, even he can''t always pick it up. Steve (Williams) is theonly one, you ask all of the players and the caddies, they arethe only ones who really understand the difference betweenwinning and losing, how fine that is."

Last season the difference was that Woods made someuncharacteristic mistakes down the stretch and Zach Johnson didnot. Bogeys at 17 and 18 on Thursday and Saturday came back tohaunt Woods, along with his inability to make a key putt.

"You always want to win major championships," Woods said. "Thisis a special one and I''ve had some nice memories here. "I justdidn''t finish off my rounds last year the way I needed to. Imade some mistakes on 17 and 18 a couple days, and that was thedifference between winning and losing."

But Woods has been on the winning side plenty of times here andfigures to only get better. At 32, he is reaching what haveproved to be a golfers'' prime years and playing in his 14thMasters, he has the experience to match his immense talent.

"To have four at this age, it''s a dream come true," Woods said."It takes so much experience and so much knowledge of how toplay this golf course. And then obviously to play well at thesame time.

"But I got lucky and played a lot of practice rounds with somepast champions and the knowledge they shared with me wasinvaluable."

That experience, and the imparted wisdom has helped turn Woodsinto a constant force, here and every else on the PGA Tour. Noone can win every tournament, not even Woods, try as he might.But it''s more of a shock when Woods doesn''t win than it is anupset when a player like Johnson does.

Woods may be comfortable here and is playing some of the bestgolf of his career - he already has four wins worldwide thisseason. But he will have to tame the famed Augusta Nationalgreens if he is to win, and that is something he has not beenable to accomplish recently.

"I just feel comfortable on this golf course because I see itevery year," Woods said. "But you have to putt well here. Youcan''t putt poorly here and win. It''s playing a lot moredifferent and a lot more penal off the tee but the greens arestill the same. The greens are still just as penal."