Tiger's big chance

By Mark Garrod, Press Association Sport Golf Correspondent Last updated: 4th August 2010

Mark Garrod says the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is Tiger Woods' golden chance to end his winless 2010 season.

So here we are in August - and Tiger Woods still has not won this year.

Such a state of affairs is something the world number one has never known before in his entire professional career.

All players love to get a win on the board early each season and until the sex scandal that turned his life upside down nobody had done that better than Woods.

Starting with his first major title in his first professional major at the 1997 Masters, this is as long as he had to wait - April, May, February, February, March, March, February, February, January, January, January, January, March.

Even when reconstructive knee surgery kept him out for eight months Woods won his third event back last year.

But so far in 2010 the game's biggest name has looked anything but its best player.

Fourth in The Masters, missed the cut at Quail Hollow, quit with a neck problem at The Players, 19th at Memorial, fourth in the US Open, 46th at the AT&T National, 23rd in The Open.

And given that he had previously won 14 titles on the same courses, including Pebble Beach by 15 shots and St Andrews by eight and five, it is not only away from his work that this has the makings of an annus horribilis.

But now comes the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, where last August Woods became the first player in American or European Tour history to win seven times on the same lay-out.

"It's one of the best courses we play all year," Woods says. "Everything is right in front of you."

No wonder he likes Firestone. He has not lost there since 2004 - and he was second then!

The last four trips he has made to the venue - injury kept him away in 2008 - have earned Woods over £3.4million. That works out at £3,146 for every shot, £11,681 for every hole and £213,194 for every day.

His worst round in that time was a 71 and since he first started playing there in 1997 he has never - never - taken more than 72.

That truly phenomenal record will be put to the test this week, a week in which his five-year stay at the top of the world rankings is under threat from Phil Mickelson again and, for the first time, from Lee Westwood as well.

But it would be hard to think of somewhere he would rather be facing them.

"I've always felt comfortable here," he said after his win last year. "Certain golf courses you just feel comfortable.

"You see the tee shots, you see the approach shots and the greens seem to be easier to read than others.

"This golf course is one of those for me. I think my results kind of show that."

And when told that the sponsors had signed another five-year deal at the venue he just smiled and commented: "I'm not against that."

The smiles have not been so ready since. He won again at the Australian Masters last November, but shortly after that came the car crash outside his home and all the stories about his serial adultery.

Astronomical sums have been reported for a divorce settlement that has yet to be confirmed, but in the meantime Woods is also trying to rebuild things on the course, having seen his coach Hank Haney quit on him in May and his putting touch desert him in Scotland.

It went unnoticed at The Open that it was his 100th appearance in a European Tour event.

His record might not compare to that at Firestone, but it is pretty amazing nonetheless.

Woods has had 38 wins, 11 second places and no fewer than 76 top-10 finishes.

The 34-year-old has never been a member of the circuit and therefore never been included on the Order of Merit, but if his name had appeared there he would have finished as number one in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

If he was on the table this year, though, he would currently be 34th.

So if there was ever a time to be taking on Woods it would appear to be now. Just maybe not at Firestone.

Mark Garrod, Press Association Sport Golf Correspondent