ORLANDO: World number one Tiger Woods has committed to defend his title at the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational next week at Firestone Country Club, where he has won seven times.
Woods announced on his website that he will make the $8.5 million event his eighth start of a comeback season in the wake of a sex scandal.
Woods is off to his worst career start of a campaign, having yet to win a 2010 event.
Woods has never finished lower than fourth at the WGC event in Akron, Ohio, but has not won since details of his adultery scandal surfaced last November.
In taking the $1.4 million Bridgestone top prize last year, Woods fired two rounds of 65 on the weekend to defeat Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Australian Robert Allenby by four strokes.
That victory made Woods the first player to win the same stroke play event seven times on the same course, having previously won at Firestone from 1999-2001 and 2005-2007.
Sam Snead owns the record with eight titles at a single event in Greensboro, North Carolina, but those came upon different courses.
Woods will use the event as a tuneup for the year’s final major tournament, the PGA Championship, which will be staged the following week at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin.
Woods, a 14-time major winner, is chasing the all-time record of 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus. But he is also pursuing Nicklaus and Snead in another win mark, the all-time PGA championship record.
With 71 PGA Tour titles, Woods stands two shy of Nicklaus for second on the all-time title list that Snead leads with 82.
Woods is coming off a share of 23rd at the British Open earlier this month at St. Andrews. He shared fourth at the Masters, his comeback event after a five-month layoff, and the US Open in this year’s other major championships.
Woods last won a US PGA event at last year’s BMW Championship, the third event of the US PGA playoffs. This year, he might struggle simply to qualify for a chance to defend that crown.
Despite having twice won the US PGA playoff crown, Woods ranks only 107th in this year’s points race, which concludes in Greensboro the week after the PGA Championship. Only the top 125 in the points race reach the playoff field.
