Woods to battle crowds and heat

Melbourne: Tiger Woods must overcome packed crowds, scorching heat and a strong local contingent bent on humbling the World No 1 on home soil to win his first title Down Under at the Australian Masters.

Woods, who was flustered by camera-happy fans at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai last week, will not be short of company at Melbourne's Kingston Heath course, where a crowd of 100,000 will witness his first appearance in Australia for 11 years.

While the American laughed off the 7,000 fans and low-hovering helicopters watching his practice round on Tuesday, organisers have vowed to swoop on errant mobile phone and camera-users among the first-time golf-watchers in the crowd.

Little can be done about the weather, however, which has Melbourne in the grip of a record-breaking late spring heatwave that is forecast to bake Kingston Heath's already tricky greens into flint-hard frying pans over the weekend.

Players who battle through the heat to make the cut at the A$1.5 million ($1.4 million) event will be rewarded with temperatures expected to reach 35 degree Celsius tomorrow, while Sunday is forecast to cool to a slightly more bearable 30.

With searing gusts likely to criss-cross the course's tight fairways and play havoc with club selection, Woods is looking to channel the links golf mastery that has delivered him three British Opens for a first tournament victory in Australia.

"The only difference here is it's hot as hell," the 14-time major champion told reporters.