Tiger gets monkey off his back as big events loom

ORLANDO, MARCH 19. Tiger Woods got a mini-monkey off his back by winning the battle of Bay Hill for his first title of the year, but whether he will win this year's war with Phil Mickelson remains to be seen.

The two top-ranked players in the world went head-to- head in the final round at the Bay Hill invitational with Woods making a 15- foot birdie at the final hole to beat Mickelson by a stroke.

The victory ended a six-tournament title drought for Woods in 2001, but only time will tell if it was the beginning of a trend that will continue in the bigger tournaments.

There are two significant Tests of whether Woods has righted himself coming up quickly - the players championship starting on Thursday, followed by the Masters in three weeks time.

``Next week is a wonderful test because we face very similar conditions, with the greens being severe,'' Woods said of the players championship course.

``It will be a good test and I'm really looking forward to it. Going into Augusta, I need to start hitting the ball a little better, controlling my trajectory,'' he said. Woods drove the ball so poorly in Sunday's final round that even the victory did not fill him with confidence. ``The way I played today, it would be hard to say it gives me momentum,'' said Woods, who managed a final-round 69 to eke out a one-shot victory.

``I just scored well, and I guess that gives you positive vibes,'' he rationalized. ``My short game was pretty good. I was playing like he (Mickelson) does sometimes, short- gaming it to death.''

Mickelson, meanwhile, played flawless golf Sunday, shooting a 66 that included six birdies. But he knows he needs to eliminate the mistakes he made over the first three days if he wants to win either the players or the Masters.

Mickelson had three bogeys in round one, seven in round two, and two doubles and a bogey in round three. ``Today is how I need to play the next three weeks,'' he said ``early in the week I gave away 10 to 15 shots. I don't now how you expect to beat the best player in the world doing that.''

Speaking of giving away shots, Sergio Garcia gave away three at the par-five sixth running up a triple bogey. Garcia drove his ball into the fairway, but his second shot found the water in front of the green. After taking a penalty stroke, he reloaded and took five more strokes to hole out.

In one hole he went from being tied for the lead to four strokes behind woods, who birdied that hole.

As if that wasn't disastrous enough, the emotional Spaniard bent his five-iron when he angrily slammed it against his bag after hitting his tee shot at the next hole. This meant he was not allowed to use the club the rest of the round.

He still managed to play the final 12 holes in even par to finish tied for fourth.

- Reuters

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