The Hindu : Sport / Golf : A Riviera win will be Woods' driving force at Nissan Open

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Friday, Feb 18, 2005

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A Riviera win will be Woods' driving force at Nissan Open

LOS ANGELES, FEB. 17. Knocked off his perch for the last 24 weeks, Tiger Woods can return to No. 1 in the world this week at the Nissan Open, and it appears that the odds are in his favour.

After all, he only has to finish fourth against a field that is missing Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, and Woods has won three times and tied for third in his last four stroke-play tournaments.

It all seems simple enough — except for where the Nissan Open is played.

Riviera Country Club, a classic design off Sunset Boulevard, is a course Woods knows as well as any on the PGA Tour. It's the closest one to his hometown, and he first played here as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992. But it also is the one place he can't seem to win.

``No doubt about it, I'd like to win,'' Woods said on Wednesday. ``Hopefully, this will be the year.''

Riviera is the only PGA Tour course Woods has played at least four times as a pro without winning, and he has only come close one year. That was in 1999, when he finished two shots behind Ernie Els.

His record will show top-10 finishes the last two years, but only because he closed with rounds of 64 and 65 after he was no longer a factor in the Nissan Open.

Sam Snead never won the U.S. Open. Arnold Palmer never won a PGA championship. Jack Nicklaus never won the Canadian Open despite seven runner-up finishes. And then there's Woods and his hometown tournament.

Even if Woods returns to No. 1 this week, it might not last long. The two-year points system favours Singh over the next few months, and the only way for Woods to get to the top and stay there is to win and keep winning.

Doing that at Riviera would make it that much sweeter. — AP

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