Woods cautions rivals

2008-01-28

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By Mark Garrod Special to PA SportsTicker

Fresh off a dominating win in his season debut, Tiger Woods flew to the Middle East on Monday with another word of caution for his rivals.

Having already said he believes a Grand Slam of all four majors this year is "easily within reason" - Nick Faldo for one thinks he will do it - Woods believes he could do more.

"Hopefully my good years are still ahead of me," Woods said.

Woods was speaking after an eight-stroke victory in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in Southern California on Sunday.

It was not only his fourth straight win in the event, but also his fourth straight tournament win overall - the previous two were by eight and seven shots.

"Even though I didn't drive the ball particularly well this week I still was able to do what I was able to do, which was nice," added the world's best player.

"I just need to go ahead and improve on that for next week and hopefully the rest of my game will be about the same, if not better."

Now, having matched Arnold Palmer's 62 career titles, leaving only Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead ahead of him, Woods turns his attentions to extending his remarkable European Tour record at the Dubai Desert Classic starting on Thursday.

Since turning professional in 1996, the 32-year-old has played 73 European-counting events and won 33 of them. That puts him third on the all-time list behind Seve Ballesteros (50) and Bernhard Langer (42).

He is close to $25 million in earnings from the circuit too - and that puts him miles ahead of nearest challengers Colin Montgomerie and Ernie Els, who each have $19 million.

Woods beat Els in a playoff in Dubai two years ago and the pair battled for the title again last February. Although Els edged Woods last year, Henrik Stenson of Sweden beat them both.

If he regains the trophy on Sunday, Woods will take his total of worldwide victories to 84 from 269 starts - and, of course, it will be his fifth win in a row.

Not that that would be a first for him. He accomplished the feat in 2006, winning the British Open and PGA Championship along the way.

Some questioned the wisdom of altering his swing a few years ago when he already had a handful of majors under his belt. But Woods had a plan.

"One of the reasons I made the changes I made is I knew I could attain another level - and here we are," Woods said. "I'm hitting shots that I never could hit before, even in 2000 (the season he won three of the four majors). I'm actually hitting the ball better now than I did during that stretch.

"I still have holes in my game that I need to fix and need to improve on. I just think that what I've been working on, I'm headed in the right direction."