Tiger prepared to hunt in Thailand

“I always enjoy coming back to Thailand. It’s neat to be back here, in front of some family and friends,” said Woods, who is chasing his 10th title of year.

Over recent weeks Woods has not quite been at his best inthe final round, he tied for fifth in last week’s American Express Championship, but it’s not something that concerns him.

“That’s the way it is. You try and put yourself in there every time you tee up. The ultimate is to be able to put yourself into position but a lot of the time, it depends on the golfing gods, good luck or bad luck.

“I remember shooting 69 at the Disney on Sunday and I lost by seven. That is the way it is,” said Woods, who has been paired with defending champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand and last year’s David off Tour Order of Merit champion Kyi Hla Han of Myanmar in the first two rounds.

Despite having won three Majors in 2000 — the US PGA Championship and the British and US Opens — the American still feels he has `underachieved’ this year.

When asked if he had surpassed his expectations this year Woods said: “I didn’t actually, I under achieved. I had high goals and expectations and I went out there to shoot for it. I was able to accomplish some of them but not all. But that’s what you need, to strive for something else.”

“I hope I can get more wins under my belt this year and I hope to continue playing solidly. In Valderrama last week, I was striking the ball beautifully but didn’t hit as many putts there that I would have liked to but if I keep hitting the ball well, the ball will find the mark. It’s a matter of when,” added Woods.

Spain’s Sergio Garcia is also playing in the Johnnie Walker Classic and feels Wood’s success has helped rather than hindered his progress in the game.

“It has helped me a lot, not only me but everybody,” said Garcia. “He’s playing at a great level and we have to try and keep up with him. We are all trying to improve and thanks to him we are doing that and you can see from the last tournament that there have been really good scores from players other than Tiger. Hopefully we can keep it up.”

The Johnnie Walker Classic marks Garcia’s first visit to Thailand and high on his agenda is his first tournament victory of the year.

“I think it has been a good year for me, not a great year like last year, but good. The only thing that I’ve missed this year is winning. Sometimes I played better than last year but I have not been able to win. I had a poor start to the year but after that Masters it was really good,” added the Spaniard.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Johnnie Walker Classic. The tournament was first played in 1990 when England’s Nick Faldo won in Hong Kong. South African Ian Palmer won the next Classic in 1992 and was followed by England’s Nick Faldo (1993), Australian Greg Norman (1994), American Fred Couples (1995), Welshman Ian Woosnam (1996), South African Ernie Els (1997), Woods (1998) and Campbell (1999).