Tiger Woods ended the 2013 season at the head of the Official World Golf Rankings, but the footsteps from behind are getting ever louder, threatening to turn the opening months of the 2014 season into a contest for the top spot - a situation more customarily seen in the women’s game over the past few years.
Courtesy of their end of season exploits, many would argue the battle for the mantle of 'Best player in the World’ is actually being waged by Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Australia’s Adam Scott.
Stenson’s form in the latter half of 2013 was beyond brilliant - he became the first player to win the FedEx Cup/Race to Dubai double on either side of the Atlantic - but Scott’s four-week performance under the intense glare of an adoring public on his return home to Australia as Masters champion was exceptional too.
There is no impediment for either player to again contend strongly in the majors in 2014. Scott has been a feature in almost every major for a number of years now and his game and comfort levels when in contention only continue to gather momentum. A successful defence at Augusta National would be a short odds bet, a multiple-major season would not surprise at all for the current world number two.
A deserved major for Stenson would break that particular drought for Sweden and the Scandinavian nations in general, guaranteeing a home reaction equivalent to the joy experienced in Australia for Scott’s win when he broke the country’s duck at in Georgia last year.
Woods turned 38 just after Christmas but after his five-win, PGA Tour ‘Player of the Year’ season he will surely be feeling confident of adding to his 14 major championship haul - and clinging to the top ranking in the game.
His major drought extends way back to that US Open play-off win over Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines in 2008, but Woods will feel like he has a home-field advantage in 2014, having claimed majors at three of the four venues to be played and been pipped at the post on more than one occasion in US Opens at Pinehurst's formidable No 2 course.
"I've won at three of the four venues - Augusta National, Valhalla Golf Club and Royal Liverpool - and on Pinehurst No 2, I'm trending the right way," said Woods recently, citing his third place finish at the 1999 US Open and a second to Michael Campbell in 2005 in North Carolina. "But I still need to practice, work, grind and prepare, and have my game come together those four times a year, and I hope that will happen."
Woods has had his naysayers who have written off any chance of him adding to his career tally but if Phil Mickelson can win on the links of Scotland at the age of 43, does anyone really want to bet their house that Woods has lifted his last major trophy?
Woods is also just three wins shy of tying Sam Snead’s record of 82 all-time PGA Tour career victories, a record that Woods seems destined to claim as his own before turning 40.
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