TOUR Insider: Doral and Puerto Rico

By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent

Not to further trouble the minds of those trying to beat Tiger Woods, but he wasn't planning on taking Monday off.

Condon/PGA TOUR

Tiger Woods goes for six TOUR victories in a row this weekend at Doral.

Inside the Numbers

TOUR Insider's power rankings for the WGC-CA Championship

Rank Player 2007 finish 1. Tiger Woods 1 2. Ernie Els T11 3. K.J. Choi T19 4. Jim Furyk T35 5. Geoff Ogilvy T3

Yes, well, when you "turn a mediocre week into a good one," as Woods described the proceedings at Bay Hill Club in Orlando that resulted in his 64th PGA TOUR title -- tying Ben Hogan for third on the all-time list -- there is, apparently, room for improvement.

"You gotta keep working," he said. "Gotta keep going forward."

Moving forward entails keeping alive several streaks as he gears up for this week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral Resort & Spa's Blue Course in Miami.

Woods hasn't lost since last September. He has five TOUR wins in a row, six overall when you count his victory at the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour, and he's won the last three tournaments at Doral going back to the 2005 Ford Championship. His six wins in the CA Championship include the last three. He has also won the last three World Golf Championships events and 14 of 25 overall.

Whatever he's working on, NASA wants a piece of it.

Whatever everyone else is working on, they might want to include subterfuge, because Woods heads to a layout where he is 54 under par over his last 12 rounds.

"I love the golf course," Woods said. "I've always played well there, and when it was decided that we were going to come [to Doral], I just thought that this was a wonderful opportunity for me to win.

"You know, playing enough years on TOUR, you start going to golf courses that set up well for you, and a lot of the guys base their schedule upon that. That's certainly one for me."

So he has that going for him, which is nice.

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• It didn't work out well at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, but Jim Furyk heads to the CA Championship feeling better about his putter change in Arizona after showing some signs of life at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Furyk, who was 6 under and only three behind after 36 holes only to fall off the pace at Bay Hill, went back to a Dogleg Right model similar to the one that he was using that was ruled nonconforming prior to his 2003 U.S. Open triumph.

Ben Curtis (Greenwood/Getty Images)

Inside the Numbers

TOUR Insider's power ranking for the inaugural Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular

Pos. Player 1. Ken Duke 2. Ben Curtis 3. Joe Durant 4. Matt Kuchar

• Fred Couples put the new Bridgestone B330 ball in play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and opened with a 65 for a share of the first-round lead. He fell off the pace as the week went on, however, and ended up tied for 64th. Couples, the U.S. Presidents Cup captain, was planning to play next at the Shell Houston Open, site of his last win in 2003, but first he was making a one-day stopover at Augusta National Golf Club to host Nick Watney for one pre-Masters scoring round.

• Robert Gamez was talking short game at length with NBC golf announcer Bob Murphy on the practice putting green at Bay Hill Club & Lodge on the eve of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Murphy was helping Gamez adjust his stance to a bit more of an open alignment.

• Arron Oberholser's sore left shoulder isn't coming around. He withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational after playing nine holes in the pro-am, and he is doubtful for this week's CA Championship. Last year's runner-up at Doral, Brett Wetterich, also is doubtful with a bad shoulder, reducing the field to 75.

• The season's last stop in Florida (next year the CA Championship moves up two weeks and the Arnold Palmer Invitational anchors the Florida swing) has been good to Sunshine State players. Someone with Florida ties has won every year at Doral since 1990 with the exception of Aussie Steve Elkington.

• Since the World Golf Championships series began in 1999, players from no less than 28 different countries have competed in the three tournaments. Count the World Cup, which was in the mix until last year, and the number rises to 44 different countries.

• The inaugural Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular represents the first full-field sanctioned PGA TOUR event in the U.S. commonwealth island located about 1,000 miles southeast of Miami. Tom Kite designed the 36 holes at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club in Rio Grande. A portion of all four nines will be used to make up a composite layout measuring 7,569 yards, par-72. Water comes into play on nearly every hole and two of the par-5s measure at least 600 yards and three of the par-3s are more than 200 yards. The course playing surfaces are seashore paspalum in the fairways and seadwarf( paspalum on the greens.

• Kite, a former U.S. Open champion and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, received a sponsor exemption into the Puerto Rico Open. It will be his first PGA TOUR start since the 2006 Booz Allen Classic, where he missed the cut.

• Other than Kite, one of the few players who has seen Coco Beach is veteran Billy Andrade, who visited there last year while on vacation.

• John Daly, disqualified from the Arnold Palmer Invitational after missing his pro-am tee time, has pulled out of the Puerto Rico event after initially getting a sponsor exemption. He also has exemptions into the following two events on the schedule, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the Shell Houston Open.