PONTE VEDRA BEACH - Tiger Woods sets a high standard, but he is held to one that is quite different from any of his peers.
Consider the scrutiny he received after tying for 46th Sunday at the Bay Hill Invitational, his worst finish in a regular PGA Tour event in five years.
Compare that with Vijay Singh, the second-ranked player in the world behind Woods, who shot a final-round 76 at Bay Hill to tie for 31st and has not posted a top-10 finish since his streak of 12 in a row ended last month at the Buick Invitational.
Or Ernie Els, the third-ranked player, who quietly missed the cut at Bay Hill, ending his streak at 30.
Woods? Everybody wants to know what's wrong.
"I just don't understand it," Woods said. "That was the first time I finished out of the top 10 this year. Going into that week, no other player could say that. Every player has their hot streaks, has their lows. Last week was one of those times I didn't play well. That happens."
But when it happens to Woods, everything is magnified. NBC's Johnny Miller suggested Woods reunite with swing coach Butch Harmon. "He's hitting a lot of hooks. I just don't think great players hook the ball," Miller said.
Nobody is wondering about the swing gurus of Els and Singh, who get a pass because golf is a game where players cannot always be at the top. What happens when Woods finally misses a cut?
"If I had missed that cut like Vijay did (at the Buick Invitational), I wonder how bad I would have been crucified," Woods said. "They'd still be writing about it. (With Vijay) it was already gone that week. There wasn't even a blurb."
Much like Jack Nicklaus, Woods is expected to take media questions after every round, good or bad. That is not the case with all the top players.
"I didn't have to stop and talk to you guys," Woods said at the Players Championship, where he finished 11th last year and won in 2001. "I was 46th place, I had no business talking to you guys when you should have been talking to the leaders. I did that, and I said honestly how I felt."
FURYK OUT INDEFINITELY: U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk had surgery on his left wrist Monday, will miss the Masters and might not be able to defend his U.S. Open title at Shinnecock Hills in June. Furyk was told the recovery time is three to six months. He said the wrist started bothering him at the British Open.
"My main focus right now is the Ryder Cup (in September)," Furyk said. "I'd hate to miss that. There's going to be a lot of U.S. Opens, there's going to be a lot of Masters, PGAs, British Opens in the future. But the Ryder Cup is only once every two years."
If Furyk does not play at the Open, he would join Ben Hogan (1949) and Payne Stewart (2000) as the only players in the past 55 years not to defend their championship. Hogan was recovering from an auto accident, and Stewart died in a 1999 airplane accident.
VIJAY'S MAJOR: Singh has missed the cut at the Players Championship the past two years, which is extremely frustrating considering he lives in the neighborhood and practices at the TPC-Sawgrass when he is not on tour.
"I think I've put too much pressure on myself," he said. "I know where to hit the ball, which way it breaks. I think I took everything for granted and put too much pressure on myself."
AROUND GOLF: With his victory Sunday at the Singapore Masters, Colin Montgomerie moved from No. 51 in the world ranking to 40th to qualify for the Players Championship. ... The Players Championship field has 48 of the top 50 in the world. Only Furyk and Rocco Mediate, who withdrew with a back injury, are missing. ... Had John Daly made par at Bay Hill's 18th hole Sunday, he likely would have moved into the top 50. Instead he is 53rd in the world ranking after a triple bogey led to a tie for 10th. ... For the first time in 23 years, Mark O'Meara is not in the Players Championship. ... The purse of $8-million is the largest in golf, up from $6.5-million last year. The winner receives $1.44-million, up from $1.17-million.
