ShareThisBy BOB BUTTITTA
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Golf fans that didn't get a chance to travel to Ireland for last weekend's Ryder Cup to see the likes of Tiger Woods, Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Chris DiMarco will have a second chance when all of those players take part in the 2006 Target World Challenge on Dec. 14-17 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
The eighth annual tournament brings together many of the world's 16 top-ranked golfers to compete in a 72-hole stroke-play event.
This year's tournament will feature a purse of $5.75 million, with the winner taking home $1.35 million.
Hosted by Woods and the Tiger Woods Foundation, it will mark the seventh time in eight years the tournament has been held at Sherwood.
Greg McLaughlin, president of the Tiger Woods Foundation, said everyone involved with the tournament is thrilled with the field.
"We feel this is one of the deepest and strongest fields we have ever had," McLaughlin. "We will have five first-time participants: Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Paul Casey, Jose Maria Olazabal and U.S Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.
"The four special exemptions selected by the tournament committee were given to John Daly, Fred Couples, Davis Love and Darren Clarke."
Woods, who is in England to play in the WGC-American Express Championship, is also thrilled with the list of players who he will compete with at the Target.
"I am very excited about this year's field," Woods said via telephone from England. "As Greg mentioned, it's probably the deepest we've had _ with all the international flavor.
"I think Southern California golf fans are in for a real treat, and of course, that only helps support the charities the tournament benefits."
One of the easiest decisions Woods and the tournament organizers had to make was inviting Clarke to play.
Clarke, who will be making his fourth appearance at the Target World Challenge, recently lost his wife, Heather, after a long and courageous fight against cancer.
"For what he has had to endure, we can all sympathize with him," Woods said. "I personally invited him, because I wanted him to understand he always has a home with us.
"He has always been a wonderful supporter of our event, but this year it was our turn to reach out with a helping hand in any way possible."
One of the main beneficiaries of the event is the Tiger Woods Foundation. Woods is much more involved with the daily operation of the foundation following the death of his father, Earl, who ran it until he died in May.
"I am quite a bit more involved on the foundation side," Woods said. "... I have had to take more of a role lately. That was always the plan, but unfortunately it happened sooner than I would have liked."
Woods said he was feeling a little tired on Monday after a long week of golf and a long Sunday night of hanging out with his Ryder Cup teammates and their competitors from the European team.
"Both teams hung out and I think that was the way the spirit of the Ryder Cup is supposed to be," Wood said. "It was a night of signing and dancing. All the guys had a great time. I think it was a true celebration of golf."
Having been on the last three losing teams, Woods was asked how the United States can break its losing streak at the 2008 event.
Woods believes the highlights showed both teams hit the ball about the same throughout the three days. The difference came on the greens.
"They holed so many more putts and on top of that, they holed the critical putts that would turn momentum and we did not," Woods said. "Time and time again our balls were in position to make momentum-making putts and it didn't happen. Consequently, if you can't change momentum, it fuels the other side."
Before the event, much was made about Woods' increased commitment to trying to turn things around for the United States. He became more of a team leader, so he was asked if that made this loss tougher to take.
"Any loss hurts," he said. "When you get dusted by nine points it doesn't feel good. Unfortunately, we have experienced that twice."
The Ryder Cup loss is another example of the roller-coaster year it's been for Woods. The highs included winning two majors and five events in a row. The downs were punctuated by the death of his dad.
Woods said the last year-plus has been a mixed bag.
"From the golf side, I was getting better and progressing with my game," Woods said. "But with everything that was going on with dad, it made it so hard to be excited about the game of golf because he was getting to a point where he was going to leave us. It's been tough."
Even the ups have had their challenges. Woods is on line to win the Vardon Award, given to the player with the lowest scoring average on tour.
Woods has won six of the last seven titles, but because he missed the cut at the U.S. Open and pulled out of the Nissan Open due to illness, he is on schedule to fall one round short of the minimum 60 official rounds needed to qualify.
Would he add an extra tournament in order to get the extra round in so he could win it?
"I have thought about it," Woods said. "I have not made any decision. I am fully aware of that. It's a pretty good award to win. We'll see what happens."
