Tiger Woods brimming with confidence ahead of Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship
A rejuvenated Tiger Woods is all set to rattle the field at this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and is riding on a high tide for the moment after a stellar victory at Chevron World Challenge.
Woods was talking to the press later on January 24, 2012, ahead of the first day of the championship and insisted that his bid in Australia before the Chevron title, proved elementary in his revival.
On a question of whether the victory at Chevron World Challenge marks the U-turn in his spiralling career Woods replied,
"I certainly did, but I think Australia was probably more. I played really well at the Open, then carried on in the Presidents Cup and basically continued that trend in the World Challenge".
Woods has opted to play on an alien course ditching his favourite hunting ground, Torrey Pines, which will be hosting this week’s PGA Tour title, the Farmers Insurance Open.
He will be wrestling his way up the leaderboard against one of the strongest fields ever compiled on the Middle Eastern turf.
Yet he remains buoyant and hopeful of his chances in the star-studded event.
Woods added, "It's always nice to have everyone playing well at the same time. I've had stretches where there were Vijay (Singh), Phil (Mickelson), myself, Ernie (Els), Goose (Retief Goosen) where we were all playing well. Now it's a different generation of guys, so it's very exciting".
Critics are of the view that Woods have taken a huge appearance fee to be part of the field in Abu Dhabi and the money paid to him is likely to be around $2 to $3 million.
The field includes the likes of top ranked players in the world, coupled with three major title holders.
The event will be the start-up event for all four top players on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and is likely to provide nail-biting competition over the weekend.
Woods will be hoping to break into the top-10 on the OWGR and he has a bright chance of doing that in case he takes over the sturdy field to rise to the top.
The former world number one fell out of the top-50 for the first time in 15 years and jolted back to number 21st after his victory in Chevron World Challenge.
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