Feb 20, 2008 4 min read

MARANA, Ariz. (AP) – Tiger Woods has not lost a tournament in nearly six months, which has fueled speculation and expectations that border on being absurd, such as one question Tuesday whether he has ever allowed himself to dream about a perfect season. “No,” Woods said.

Then came the briefest pause.

“I’ve had one perfect season,” he added, “but it’s been awhile. When I was 11. I won 36 tournaments that year. I peaked at 11.”

Perfection is what it takes at the Accenture Match Play Championship, which starts Wednesday on The Gallery course at Dove Mountain among the top 64 players available from the world ranking.

Perfect golf isn’t required. This format is loaded with examples of guys who play solid and go home, and guys who can’t break par and advance because their opponent was even worse.

But it does take a perfect record, making this one of the toughest events to win.

“It’s kind of do-or-die here,” Adam Scott said. “You’d better bring it every day. Otherwise, you’re probably going home, because you’ve got the top guys in the world here. As much as I expect to win, you’ve got to be a little careful that you’re not getting ahead of yourself in this format.”

Woods, who plays J.B. Holmes in the first round, knows that all too well.

He is the only No. 1 seed to lose in the first round since this tournament began in 1999, getting eliminated in 2002 by Peter O’Malley. In the third round last year, Woods was on the verge of completing a comeback against Nick O’Hern when he stood over a 4-foot birdie putt on the 19th hole and says he failed to notice a pitch mark, causing his ball to hop off line.

O’Hern beat him on the next hole.

The circumstances are slightly familiar. Woods was going for his eighth consecutive PGA Tour victory last year at Dove Mountain. His winning streak now is a little more complicated to compute, but it is no less impressive.

Since finishing second on Sept. 3 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Woods won the last two playoff events in the FedEx Cup and opened his ’08 season on the PGA Tour by winning the Buick Invitational by eight shots. He also won his unofficial Target World Challenge in California against a 16-man field by seven shots. On the European Tour, he rallied from four shots down to win the Dubai Desert Classic.

Unofficially, that’s five straight wins spread over five months.

Officially, he has to win six straight matches over five days, with his first objective to get past Holmes.

“This is always going to be probably a little more difficult to win because you could be playing well and still go home,” Woods said. “It’s not about the marathon. It’s not about the long race of four rounds to position yourself for winning a golf tournament. It’s a sprint. You’ve got to get it done in 18 holes. If you get two or three behind in this format with only 18 holes, generally the guys lose.

“But in stroke play, if you get off to a slow start, you can still win a golf tournament.”

Consider this – in his 60 stroke-play victories on the PGA Tour, Woods has only led in the first round 13 times.

Woods’ love for match play dates to his amateur career, where he set one record with as much staying power as his 15-shot victory in the U.S. Open. He won three straight U.S. Junior Amateurs, followed by three straight U.S. Amateurs.

Someone once asked Woods why match play was tougher as a professional.

“The field,” he replied, and there’s a lot of truth to that.

Unlike the brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament, or the brackets for Wimbledon, there is no safe bet at the Accenture Match Play Championship, especially over 18 holes.

That was proven in the first four years, when the winning seeds looked like they came off a Bingo card – 24, 19, 55, 62.

Henrik Stenson is the defending champion, but he was so sick with a stomach virus last week at home in Dubai that he couldn’t get out of bed for three days.

Copyright Associated Press 2008