Woods nothing short of masterful

With all due respect to those who count the days until pitchers and catchers report, there is only one harbinger of spring that warrants my interest. A mere six weeks from today, the Masters will get under way.

The good news for those who call the PGA Tour their place of business is this: There are seven tournaments from now until the Masters, and Tiger Woods won't even win half of them.

That's right, the best he'll do is 2 for 7, because two is all he'll play - the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 13-16) and the CA Championship (March 20-23). The incomparable one is sitting out this week's Honda Classic and he'll bypass the PODS Championship next week. Woods will be on R&R while events are played in New Orleans (March 27-30) and Puerto Rico (April 3-6), and there's no chance of seeing him at the inaugural Puerto Rico Open (March 20-23) since it's opposite the CA Championship, though that situation presents perhaps the only challenge that remains for him - that is, winning two tournaments going on simultaneously at different venues.

Laugh, but given the way things have gone of late, you'd have to think Woods could figure out a way to win in both Puerto Rico and Miami, if PGA Tour officials would juggle his tee times. Don't think so? Well, consider that he has won each of his last four PGA Tour starts, dating to August, and if you factor in every time he's teed it up worldwide since winning the Bridgestone Invitational in August, Woods has been victorious in 8 of 9 events. He's won medal and match play, on two continents, in six states, and most of all, with outrageous ease.

His seven stroke-play victories have been by an average of 5.14 shots. Three times he has won by eight, once by seven, and only once has a player been within one. The 8-and-7 triumph over Stewart Cink in last Sunday's Accenture Match Play Championship? It translates into about a 12-shot win, perhaps, and meant that nine players have finished a distant runner-up during this incredible stretch - Cink, Ryuji Imada at the Buick Invitational, Martin Kaymer in Dubai, Zach Johnson at the Target World Challenge, Mark Calcavecchia and Johnson at the Tour Championship, Aaron Baddeley at the BMW, Woody Austin in the PGA, and Justin Rose and Rory Sabbatini at the Bridgestone.

Is it a better stretch than when Woods won seven straight in 2006-07? Or 1999-2000,when he went for six in a row? Or from the summer of 2000 to the spring of '01, when he won four straight majors? Or in 2002, when he won the Masters and US Open consecutively? Woods says yes, that it's the best he's ever played, and frankly, that's good enough for me.

So dominating is Woods that every time you stumble into someone trying to diminish his play, there's strong evidence to the contrary.

For instance: Theorists will point out that Woods has won 15 of the 26 World Golf Championship events in which he has participated since 1999, thus the PGA Tour has made things easier for him with so many limited-field tournaments.

In defense: Sure, he has won 5 of 11 times with limited fields since the start of 2007, but in that time he has also prevailed in 4 of 7 against full fields.

For instance: WGC fields may feature great international flavor, but too many are obscure golfers from far corners of the world who offer limited competition.

In defense: Oh, right, the WGCs are so easy to win that Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, K.J. Choi, and Angel Cabrera - just to mention eight ranked within the top 20 in the world - have combined for zero victories.

For instance: Woods only plays a pared-down schedule that allows for plenty of rest and he's always on courses he favors.

In defense: This is quite a stretch, because first of all he has earned the right to play a schedule that fits him. Second, others before him - Jack Nicklaus with great success, Greg Norman with disappointing results - have also played limited schedules, and it speaks to Woods's brilliance that he is able to be so dominating with less competition. Oh, and there is this nugget: He has won the CA Championship (formerly the American Express) six times on six courses, so maybe what this all boils down to is Woods is far superior to everyone else, no matter the format, the venue, or how few his appearances.

Sorenstam starts fast

Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa makes her season debut today at the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore. The field includes Annika Sorenstam, who has moved to No. 2, and while she's 7.88 points behind Ochoa, the ranking signals that the 37-year-old Swede is committed to getting back on top of her game. Sorenstam will be playing in each of the first three tournaments on the schedule for the first time since 2002, a year in which she triumphed 11 times. In 2000 and '01, Sorenstam skipped each of the first three events, and from 2003-05 she didn't play the season opener. She skipped the first two tournaments in 2006-07, but she has already won the '08 season opener, the SBS Open, and finished fourth in the second tournament, the Fields Open . . . The two-week trip to Hawaii was hardly profitable for Ai Miyazato, Janice Moodie, and Grace Park, all of whom missed the cut in both the SBS and Fields. It continued a mystifying downward spin for Park, who is just one week shy of her 29th birthday, but seemingly miles from the talent that earned her a major championship in 2004. In her last 10 starts, dating to last June, Park has missed eight cuts, had one withdrawal, finished tied for 50th, and produced a 76.23 scoring average for 21 rounds . . . Speaking of slides, Michelle Wie's continued at the Fields Open, finishing tied for last of the 73 players who made the cut. It means that in her last 10 tournaments, going back to the fall of 2006, Wie's best finish is a 17th at the Samsung World Championship - and that was in a 20-player field. The 18-year-old has returned to classes at Stanford, with no official word on when she will next play . . . After a week off, the LPGA Tour will set up in Mexico for the MasterCard Classic, so it won't be until March 27-30 and its fifth event that it will actually play in the continental US . . . The LPGA Tour's website lists all 78 players involved in this week's Singapore stop, then includes 17 alternates and a disclaimer that there are "40 additional alternates." Wow, if you're the 57th alternate, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't like your chances for getting in.

News of the day

Fairway news: PGA Tour officials give in to player discontent and amend a new cut policy that went into effect Jan. 4 and lasted just nine tournaments. When 78 or more players make the cut, instead of trimming to top 70 and ties after two rounds, officials will wait until after the third round.

Clubhouse view: Some players wanted fields trimmed to low 70 and anyone within 15 shots of Woods, but that was voted down.

Fairway news: The PGA Tour names Fred Couples US captain for the 2009 Presidents Cup.

Clubhouse view: His first command decision will be to skip the black-tie gala in favor of couches, plasma TVs, and an evening of "SportsCenter."

Fairway news: The PGA Tour names Greg Norman International captain for the '09 Presidents Cup.

Clubhouse view: Team members will practice on Greg Norman grass, and dinners will feature Greg Norman wine, Greg Norman beef, and Greg Norman tiramisu. What? He's not involved with tiramisu? Be patient, there's time.

Fierce competition

How serious is the competition in South Florida during the winter? Consider the Monday qualifier for this week's PGA Tour stop, the Honda Classic. With the usual four spots available, some 90 players showed up at the Fox Club in Palm City, and you needed to shoot 6 under par to get through. That was bad news for Pembroke's Kevin Johnson, whose 5-under 67 left him tied for fifth with Dicky Pride, who was one of a number of notable names left out. Jason Caron of South Yarmouth, who is waiting for the Nationwide Tour to resume in a few weeks, shot 71, as did Jim Renner of Plainville and Justin Peters of Pembroke. Frank Dully, the head professional at Kernwood Country Club in Salem, shot 79. Renner (67), Peters (67), and Dully (68) had earned their way into the qualifier by shooting low at a pre-qualifier at PGA Estates in West Palm Beach. . . . One of those who got through the Monday qualifier and will tee it up in the Honda, Henrik Bjornstad, tuned up by finishing tied for third in a Gateway Tour event at the Sandpiper Golf Course in Lakeland.

Hole lot of nonsense

From the wacky stat department, meet something called "proximity to the hole." One would assume it identifies solid play, but the PGA Tour leader is Tom Scherrer and he's missed the cut in three of his four starts and finished joint 50th in the other. As for the men tied for second, Lee Janzen has missed the cut in two of his three starts and Heath Slocum has missed back-to-back cuts. All of which leads one to wonder, "Just which hole are they in close proximity to?" . . . Some serious winter rust on the PGA Tour roster was on display during the recently concluded West Coast swing, and for a second straight year a lot of it came from Ken Duke. He missed three consecutive cuts in last year's swing and he's currently on a streak of four in a row. Last year's Nationwide Tour player of the year, Nick Flanagan, had four missed cuts in five starts before he notched a tie for ninth in Mexico last week, and Will MacKenzie finished tied for 70th at the Northern Trust Open, hardly inspiring, except that he had missed the cut in each of his first four starts . . . If you had been asked at the start of the season which native Rhode Islander would play the best through the first seven weeks, would you have offered up the names of Patrick Sheehan (86th on the money list, with $162,187) or Brad Adamonis (108th, $95,340)? Sheehan finished sixth in Mexico last weekend and has cashed a check in four of his five starts, while Adamonis, a Tour rookie, has been in the money in five of his six starts. Billy Andrade (three starts) and Brett Quigley (two) have yet to make a cut, while Brad Faxon remains sidelined after knee surgery.

Local knowledge

There's a healthy contingent of local faces on the Hooters Tour's winter series. Renner and Rob Oppenheim of Andover both finished at 210 to get into a share of 11th at a stop in Orlando, Fla., while Andy Morse of Needham (211) was tied for 17th and Tim Acquaviva of Andover (215) was in a share of 29th. At Apopka, Fla., Michael Welch of North Quincy finished tied for 12th, Renner was joint 16th, and Morse was T-26. Oppenheim is 17th on the money list, Morse 19th . . . The 2008 Hooters Tour season will commence today with the Guatemala Open and Welch is among those who have committed . . . The field is filling up fast for the 30th annual Cronin Memorial Four-ball at the Country Club of Halifax, scheduled for May 1-2. Requests for applications can be made through thecronin@comcast.net . . . It's hard to believe, but No. 24 is now 74 - Sam Jones, that is. The Celtics legend showed that he still has that magic athletic touch by making a hole-in-one during a pro-am at the recent Champions Tour stop in Naples, Fla., the ACE Group Classic. Jones used a 6-iron at the 138-yard 12th hole at Quail West, and if you remember the man's greatness, you'd be inclined to ask: "Did he bank it?"