By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS
Dubai : World No.1 golfer Tiger Woods has said that he plays to win for himself and his family and not for anyone else.
“It’s one of those things where you don’t win for anyone else,” Woods, who is here for the Dubai Desert Classic 2008, told reporters here Wednesday.
The main round of the four-day European Tour event starts here Thursday.
“You do it for yourself and your family. That’s whom you play for. You don’t play for pleasing the media, the sponsors, the fans or anything like that,” he said.
He said that his parents always stressed on him to compete for himself and not anybody else.
“You go out there and you play to win because that’s what you want to do. You don’t go out there to tee it up to win for someone else. That’s something my mom and dad has always stressed is that you go out there and compete for yourself, and if you don’t want to do it anymore, you walk. That’s the way it is,” said Woods.
The American golfer, who won the Dubai title in 2006, said that he has come fresh after a good break from the tour and is raring to regain the title.
“It’s one of those things where I’ve always played, you know, pretty well coming off breaks, and you feel fresh and my practice sessions were pretty good, and I am really excited about getting back out and playing,” he said.
Woods had won the season opening Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in the US last week after taking a five-week break.
When reminded about his remarks after winning the Buick that he was playing this stretch as good as any time, better than in 2000, he said: “People ask me if it’s a run, but I think it’s just improvement. That’s one of the reasons why I made the changes that I made is to get to this point.”
Asked if he has set himself a target of say a 100 PGA tour events and 29 Majors, Woods said he would take it as it came.
“You just take it as it comes. When I first turned pro, could I have foreseen this happening, this soon in my career? No, certainly not. Not by the time I’m 32 years old and having 13 major championships.
“I wouldn’t have foreseen myself getting to that point, because at the time my game wasn’t good enough. I had not matured and had not understood how to play the game of golf. Over the years, understanding how to manage my game around the golf course and getting the most out of it each and every day, that takes experience,” he said.
Woods, who is also designing a golf course in this west Asian metropolis, said that work on the project is going on. “We have two holes shaped now. Working on a third. You know, the schedule has been thrown off a little bit but now we are starting to really get things cranking, which is nice.”
Asked if Dubai’s general ambition of becoming the world’s greatest golf destination was realistic, he said: “Well, I think certainly, and maybe not just limiting to just to golf; I think just the overall destination of the entire region.
“What they are doing is frankly phenomenal. I haven’t seen anything like this and I don’t think really anyone has anywhere around the world has seen this type of growth, and I think golf is just one component of it.”