Tiger Woods at the Dubai Desert Classic
At the Omega Dubai Desert Classic Tiger Woods finished on Saturday within a couple shots of the leader, Rory Mcilroy, with even the toughest of pundits suggesting that a red shirted Woods would earn the honours in Dubai by Sunday evening – in what was a very competitive field.
However by the end of the same day Tiger had slipped back to 20th spot after a final round 75 failed to end his seventeen month winless streak.
Then another day later Tiger Woods received a fine from The European Tour for spitting during that final round at the Emirates Golf Club, something which the US golfer recognised on his Twitter account on Monday when he said,
“The Euro Tour is right – it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better. Just wasn’t thinking and want to say I’m sorry.
Having built up the event to be a battle between the World Number One, Lee Westwood, World Number 2, Martin Kaymer and the Number three – Woods the contest failed to materialise.
In the end it was Spanish golfer Alvaro Quiros who stormed the field on Sunday winning his second European Tour event with the world’s best golfers failing to match him for one reason and another.
But given the anticipation of Woods clinching victory in Dubai at the weekend the US golfers pain will be lessened by the three million dollars he received in appearance money. Albeit the fine from the European Tour and the worldwide publicity about the spitting incident is unwelcome.
The debate that has triggered this week though, is once again whether Tiger Woods will ever regain his world dominance. The question maybe answered at the Accenture World Match Play next week at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club as Woods will be joined by the top 64 players in the world in the Arizona desert.
However he will be aware that the European Tour’s rich vein of form in WGC events is such they have provided the winner in three of the four events in the past year.
