With eye on Augusta, Woods says major wins are what really counts

MIAMI — The streak is exciting, and Tiger Woods is enjoying the moment, playing the kind of golf that has many talking about him matching one of sports’ all-time records.

But Sunday’s dramatics are history and everybody starts over on Thursday, which to Woods means none of the previous five consecutive victories on the PGA Tour matters — including his hair-raising finish at Bay Hill — when he steps inside the ropes at the Doral Resort’s Blue Monster course. And while matching Byron Nelson’s 63-year-old record of 11 consecutive victories would be “the ultimate,” Woods made it clear Wednesday that its value would come more from what would be achieved along the way.

“And that’s obviously winning Augusta,” Woods said of the Masters, which begins in three weeks. “You can win every tournament for the entire year, but if you go 0-for-4 in the major championships — you don’t really get remembered for the number of wins in a career. It’s the number of wins in major championships. Those are the biggest events.”

And so while Woods, 32, who has 64 career victories and is tied for third with Ben Hogan on the all-time PGA Tour list, would undoubtedly love to catch Jack Nicklaus (73 wins) and Sam Snead (82), the ultimate goal is clear. Getting ready for the major championships is more important.

Woods said earlier this year that winning the Grand Slam — victories at the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship — is “easily within reason.”

He has not shied away from such talk, and his game backs him up. Woods has won six straight official tournaments worldwide and eight of his last nine. The last time he finished outside of the top 10 was a tie for 12th at the British Open in July.

“You know as well as I do that there’s never been a player who’s been in contention week in and week out in any period of golf like Tiger has,” said Woods’ caddie, Steve Williams. “He trains properly, he prepares himself properly and he doesn’t enter a tournament or play in a tournament unless he knows he can win it.”

There are few events where Woods would seemingly be more of a favorite than this one. He has won the CA Championship — formerly the American Express Championship — six times, including three straight. He has also won at Doral the last three years, the first two when it was a regular PGA Tour stop and last year as a World Golf Championship event.

Woods has played his last 12 rounds over the Doral course in 54-under par.

And he is coming off a stirring victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he shot 66-66 on the weekend and made a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win by a stroke. Ladbrokes, a United Kingdom-based booking agent, has Woods listed at 4-to-6 to win this week.

“One thing I found interesting with what Tiger had to say after his round is, ‘All I want to do is put myself in the position where it’s in my hands, where I can either win or lose the golf tournament, and I’m the type of guy that wants the ball in my hands,’” said Sean O’Hair, who played in the final pairing with Woods on Sunday. “I thought that was a cool statement. That goes to show you what type of guy he is and why he is where he is.”

Another reason Woods is where he is: He won’t let his past success at Doral, or his winning streak, change his approach to the next tournament.

“This week is a new week, and I’m trying to get this one and make sure my game is right for Augusta,” Woods said. “As I’ve always said, you want to peak four times a year, and I want everything going positively that way.

“Last week, the first few days were kind of a setback, but I turned it around and still ended up winning the golf tournament, which is great,” he said. “I think that’s the maturation of my game, is learning how to fix it and turning rounds into rounds that don’t basically kick me out of a tournament.”

So if Woods fails to win at Doral, it will be the end of his streak, not the end of the world.

Either way, you can expect the same attention to detail in preparing for the Masters. Woods is scheduled to compete in the Tavistock Cup, an exhibition, on Monday and Tuesday. He said he might take a trip to Augusta National to see some of the modest changes made to the course. His instructor, Hank Haney, will visit him at Isleworth in Orlando to continue working toward the first major championship of the year.

Streak or no streak, it is clear that is what is most important.

“If you win one major a year, it turns a good year into a great year,” Woods said. “That’s one of the reasons why I think we as players put so much emphasis on those major championships. They mean so much, and not only to us, but in the historical sense.’” Here