Tiger Woods is in the field for this week’s World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral in Miami, so is there really any question who the overwhelming betting favorite is on WagerWeb.com (Tiger is - 25).
Woods has won five consecutive PGA tournaments (six short of Byron Nelson’s record) and nine of his last 10 worldwide events overall. And that non-loss? A second place at September's Deutsche Bank Championship.
He’s good. And he has the last three events on the Blue Monster course at Doral, not to mention the past three WGC-CA events, including 2006 at The Grove in England and 2005 at Harding Park in San Francisco. Last year he beat Brett Wetterich by two strokes.
Tiger looks to win this title for the seventh time, and if he is able to do so will move into second position on the list of most wins in a single event, which is currently held by Sam Snead who won the Greater Greensboro Open on eight consecutive occasions between 1938 and 1965.
Since the 2006 British Open, Woods has won 16 of the 25 PGA Tour events he has played, or 64 percent.
With 64 victories, he's tied with Ben Hogan for third on the PGA Tour's all-time list, behind only Snead with 82 and Jack Nicklaus with 73.
So, can anyone beat him? Even Tiger says so: "All the players in the event."
And there is a very strong field this week, with 49 of the world's top 50 players present, including world No. 2 Phil Mickelson (who was runner-up to Tiger at the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral) and No. 3 Ernie Els (+1500), who has tied for 11th and 7th in his past two trips to Miami.Lefty (+650) tied for 23rd last year when the CA Championship was played at Doral for the first time, and that equaled his best finish in the tournament, set in 2002 at Mount Juliet in Ireland. His best finish in a WGC event was second in the 1999 NEC Invitational, one stroke behind -- yes -- Woods.
Vijay Singh (+950) led week at Bay Hill for a while and seems to have found his game after an illness. He tied for 11th last year at this event and he has played well on the Blue Monster and in this tournament. Singh has never won a WGC tournament, but he tied for second in this event in 2003 when it was at the Capital City Club in Woodstock, Ga., and he finished third the two previous years at Mount Juliet in Ireland and Valderrama in Spain. At Doral, he has finished in the top five a total of five times, including a tie for second behind Greg Norman in 1996.
Henrik Stenson (+2000) has not played a lot in 2008 but when he has he has done well. He has been inside the top six in four of his five starts in 2008. He played this event last year and finished 19th.
Except for last year, Retief Goosen (+4800) has played well at Doral the last four years. He finished third in 2004 and eighth the following year.
Lastly, Sergio Garcia's game fits Doral like a glove, with six finishes in the top seven since 1999. He’s +3000 at WagerWeb.com.
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