Irish Golf Desk

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Woods one round away from No 1 spot

Brian Keogh

Tiger Woods is close to becoming world No 1 againGraeme McDowell has work to do to be ready for the Masters. Tiger Woods? Not so much.

As McDowell shot a listless 75 to slip close to the back of the field in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on five over, Woods had five birdies and an eagle in a six under 66 to take a two-stroke lead into the final round.

An eighth career victory at Bay Hill would be the 99th win of Woods’ pro career and his 77th on the PGA Tour. It would also see him overtake the absent Rory McIlroy and return to the top of the world rankings for the first time since the end of October 2010 - two years, four months and 24 days ago.

He leads on 11 under par from Rickie Fowler (67), john Huh (71) and joint overnight leader Justin Rose, who was four under after four holes but imploded under the Woods onslaught and shot a 72 to miss out of a place in the final group.

With a record of 40 wins from the 42 times he has the outright lead going into the final round, Woods looks almost unbeatable.

But despite yet another imperius putting display - he made five big par saves in the first 10 holes and has averaged 26 putts for his last seven rounds since that putting lesson with Steve Stricker in Miami - he sounded a note of caution.

”Just because I’ve won here doesn’t ensure that I’m going to win the tournament,” Woods said. ”The conditions are different. The game might be different. But the objective is still to put myself in position to win the golf tournament and somehow get it done on Sunday. Over the course of my career, I’ve done a pretty decent job of that.”

He might just be playing down the hype in case of accident but a third win before the Masters would send him to Augusta as an even bigger favourite than he is already.

As for McDowell, he went out with what he described on twitter as the “dewsweepers” but played more like another description he has used for the early morning starters - “the deadmen”.

The stats say he his eight fairways, eight greens and had 11 single putts in a 25 putt round. There were three birdies and three bogeys but his day ended when he made a triple bogey seven at the  tough 15th, knocking an ambitious second from the fairway trap out of bounds on the right.

As for Woods, it was his putting that pleased him most.

”I made a few putts, and that’s what I was pleased with today,” Woods said.

The short stick has been his nemesis many times over the past fouyr years and nine months since the last of his 14 majors wins.

While he is still erratic off the tee, he has putted well this year and while there were wobbles down the stretch at Torrey Pines and Doral as he won the Farmers Insurance Open and the WGC - Cadillac Championship, he will be keen to retain his Arnold Palmer Invitational title today.

Last year’s final round performance left McDowell heralding his return in awe. It didn’t translate into a major victory for the 37-year old Californian in 2012, however, and it remains to be seen if he can make amends this year.

History of the No. 1 ranking in golf

  1. April 6, 1986 Bernhard Langer (3 weeks)
  2. April 27, 1986 Seve Ballesteros (20 weeks)
  3. Sept. 14, 1986 Greg Norman (62 weeks)
  4. Nov. 22, 1987 Seve Ballesteros (1 week)
  5. Nov. 29, 1987 Greg Norman (48 weeks)
  6. Oct. 30, 1988 Seve Ballesteros (1 week)
  7. Nov. 6, 1988 Greg Norman (1 week)
  8. Nov. 13, 1988 Seve Ballesteros (19 weeks)
  9. March 26, 1989 Greg Norman (1 week)
  10. April 2, 1989 Seve Ballesteros (20 weeks)
  11. Aug. 20, 1989 Greg Norman (54 weeks)
  12. Sept. 2, 1990 Nick Faldo (6 weeks)
  13. Oct. 14, 1990 Greg Norman (16 weeks)
  14. Feb. 3, 1991 Nick Faldo (9 weeks)
  15. April 7, 1991 Ian Woosnam (50 weeks)
  16. March 22, 1992 Fred Couples (1 week)
  17. March 29, 1992 Nick Faldo (1 week)
  18. April 5, 1992 Fred Couples (15 weeks)
  19. July 19, 1992 Nick Faldo (81 weeks)
  20. Feb. 6, 1994 Greg Norman (27 weeks)
  21. Aug. 14, 1994 Nick Price (44 weeks)
  22. June 18, 1995 Greg Norman (96 weeks)
  23. April 20, 1997 Tom Lehman (1 week)
  24. April 27, 1997 Greg Norman (7 weeks)
  25. June 15, 1997 Tiger Woods (1 week)
  26. June 22, 1997 Ernie Els (1 week)
  27. June 29, 1997 Greg Norman (1 week)
  28. July 6, 1997 Tiger Woods (9 weeks)
  29. Sept. 7, 1997 Greg Norman (18 weeks)
  30. Jan. 11, 1998 Tiger Woods (13 weeks)
  31. April 12, 1998 Ernie Els (4 weeks)
  32. May 10, 1998 Tiger Woods (1 week)
  33. May 17, 1998 Ernie Els (4 weeks)
  34. June 14, 1998 Tiger Woods (41 weeks)
  35. March 28, 1999 David Duval (14 weeks)
  36. July 4, 1999 Tiger Woods (5 weeks)
  37. Aug. 8, 1999 David Duval (1 week)
  38. Aug. 15, 1999 Tiger Woods (264 weeks)
  39. Sept. 6, 2004 Vijay Singh (26 weeks)
  40. March 6, 2005 Tiger Woods (2 weeks)
  41. March 20, 2005 Vijay Singh (3 weeks)
  42. April 10, 2005 Tiger Woods (6 weeks)
  43. May 22, 2005 Vijay Singh (3 weeks)
  44. June 12, 2005 Tiger Woods (281 weeks)
  45. Oct. 31, 2010 Lee Westwood (17 weeks)
  46. Feb. 27, 2011 Martin Kaymer (8 weeks)
  47. April 24, 2011 Lee Westwood ( 5 weeks)
  48. May 29, 2011 Luke Donald (40 weeks)
  49. March 4, 2012 Rory McIlroy (2 weeks)
  50. March 18, 2012 Luke Donald (4 weeks)
  51. April 15, 2012 Rory McIlroy (2 weeks)
  52. April 29, 2012 Luke Donald (1 week)
  53. May 6, 2012 Rory McIlroy (3 weeks)
  54. May 27, 2012 Luke Donald (11 weeks)
  55. Aug. 12, 2012 Rory McIlroy (32 weeks so far…)
  56. March 24, 2013 ????? ?????