No surprise if Tiger Woods ends winless streak

If there is one week in world golf that well and truly belongs to just one player, it is this week of the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational, where world number one Tiger Woods is the dominant force.

The Firestone Country Club’s South course has been the permanent host venue of the tournament for some time, and it is a golf course where Tiger seems to do no wrong. After all, he has won seven of these so far in his career, which is an incredible number. Especially when you consider that the majority of professional golfers will go an entire lifetime and still not win that many tournaments in total.

His comfort factor with the golf course is just mind-boggling, although, having said that, he hasn’t won the tournament since 2009. But the thing that amazes me more is the quality of the field against which he has been able to rack up those wins. The WGC-Bridgestone, played a week before the PGA Championship, always attracts the cream of world golf.

Will Tiger be able to break his three-year winless drought this year? I won’t be surprised because I thought he was very solid throughout the Open Championship week. But he will have his task cut out as there are several stars who are in very good form at the moment, including Open champion Phil Mickelson.

The European Tour was in Russia last week, and even though I finished in the middle of the pack, I was quite happy with the way I played. As I mentioned recently in this column, I need to get another dose of dextrose injected in my injured finger, which I hope to get done over the next three weeks, when I am not playing any competitive golf.

There was a bit of drama on the PGA Tour last week with Hunter Mahan having to pull out of the RBC Canadian Open on Saturday morning minutes before his tee-time. Mahan was actually leading the tournament, but his wife went into labour and he decided to withdraw and head straight back to be for the child-birth.

Mahan’s absence benefitted his good friend Brandt Snedeker, who captured his second title of what is proving to be another great season for him. But I am sure this is a decision that Mahan will never regret. He may have lost a chance to pocket a million-dollar cheque, but in his first daughter, he has something that just cannot have a monetary value against it.

— Jeev Milkha Singh is a four-time winner on the European Tour