Rochester (New York), Aug 14: Tiger Woods is having the sort of "slump" season that golfers dream about. The world number one has won four titles and 4.7 million dollars this year and leads the US PGA tour with a 68.36 stroke average a round.
But Woods has not won a major in six tries, inspiring some critics to declare him in a slump entering today's start of the 85th PGA championship, the year's final major tournament, here at Oak Hill Country Club.
"I'm going to make a prediction -- I would suspect that Tiger Woods is going to brak his 'slump' this week," five-time British Open champion Tom Watson said with a laugh yesterday.
Woods can only shake his head and smile at how he has raised the standards for comparing his own game to the point where anything less than astonishing is a sub-par season.
"It's more of an annoyance than anything else," Woods said. "I have had a very successful year and in a couple more weeks it will be seven years out here on tour. In seven years I've done all right."
A victory here would put Woods alongside Walter Hagen as the only men to win a major in five consecutive years. But Woods said he feels no extra urgency to capture a major before 2003's last chance slips away.
"You can't look at it that way," he said. "I try to prepare myself and give myself the best chance. I've done that in every major. The mindset has not changed. It's not something you look at." Bureau Report