The legend of Tiger Woods grew and grew in 2007. Just when you thought he had done enough for one year, he comes back from more than a 10-week break, shoots 22-under-par for four rounds and beats a world-class field by a margin of seven strokes.
I thought his performance last week at his own Target World Challenge was awesome. Because he is the host for the week, there are added responsibilities — and Tiger likes to be very involved with what he is doing.
He is extremely focused on his own game in other tournaments, but at the AT&T National, his new event on the PGA Tour, and at the Target World Championship, which benefits his Tiger Woods Foundation, he has to take care of the various corporate sponsors and the nitty-gritty of running an event.
Of course, he is blessed to have a great team working with him but, being Tiger, he likes getting involved with the whole show.
It’s amazing how much effort and time he puts into his own game, and yet he still manages to have so much time to do things with his family, sponsors, foundation, charity, media and his new passion for course designing.
Moving on, there was some great news for the Golf in Dubai-promoted Indian Masters last week. A lot was being said about the event, which became a huge bone of contention between the European and Asian Tours. There was even talk of leading Indian players, most of whom are members of the Asian Tour, planning to stay away.
Thankfully, the matter has been resolved and all the decks have been cleared for India’s first European Tour event. It will now be a tri-sanctioned affair between Europe, Asia and the Professional Golf Tour of India.
All the involved parties are happy — Europe have got more than 55 spots, while Asia have close to 35 after ensuring that at least 25 Indian golfers tee off.
I’m currently enjoying my month off in India. After a week in Chandigarh, I went to Delhi where I had some corporate commitments as well as attending a press conference for the Johnnie Walker Classic, which becomes the second European Tour event in India and will be held just a couple of weeks after the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters.
Two events of this stature in three weeks, and featuring a majority of the top-20 players in the world — things just keep getting better for golf in India.
Jeev Milkha Singh is the first Indian golfer to break into the world’s top 50
