THOMASTOWN CO., Kilkenny, Ireland -- With all the postseason hardware he normally pockets destined this year for the trophy case in another Florida home, Tiger Woods’ goals right now are simple.

“Win,” he said succinctly, and this week’s title defense at the World Golf Championships-American Express Championship would be a good place to start.

Teeing it up on Thursday at Mount Juliet Conrad could be in jeopardy, though. Woods injured his back “sleeping kind of awkwardly” on a plane last week as he returned from New York after promoting the launch of his new EA Sports game.

“Just a couple of rib heads aren’t gliding properly,” Woods reported. “It’s spasmed up and it hasn’t been the same since.”

Woods said he’ll make a decision on whether he’ll be able to begin his title defense after he warms up on Thursday morning. He is slated to tee off at 12:50 p.m. with England’s Luke Donald and K.J. Choi of Korea in the $7 million event.

Woods played seven holes Wednesday at Mount Juliet, where he shot a sizzling 25 under to win the American Express Championship in 2002. Woods quit, though, “because I didn’t want to push it,” he said.

“It was sore, but I could manage it,” Woods said, adding that he could have played had the tournament started Wednesday.

“I could have played all 18 today but it would have been very tough, and hopefully tomorrow it will be a little bit easier.”

The pain is located on the left side of Woods' back between his shoulder blades. He says he feels it as his shoulder blade contracts, “so it’s right at impact and beyond impact.”

Woods played despite pain in his knee for roughly a year before having arthroscopic surgery. But he says this injury is different because of its affect on his swing.

“If I’m able to go, I’ll go,” Woods said. “I’ve never been one to pull out of tournaments and quit just because I’m physically sore. I played through, obviously my knee pain for quite a long time, and if I can go, I’ll go. There’s no doubt about that.

“But if I can’t actually swing a golf club, then it’s pretty tough to play.”

Woods has found he’s hitting it shorter, but straighter due to the injury -- “so I guess that’s a positive,” he said wryly. He’s never previously suffered from back problems.

“I guess this is what happens when you get older,” the 28-year-old said with a smile.

Woods has won once this season -- capturing the first World Golf Championships event of the year, the Accenture Match Play Championship. He’s won 10 in the series, including three of the four previous American Express Championships.

In his last two starts this year, at the NEC Invitational and the Deutsche Bank Championship, Woods has finished second. But he relinquished his stranglehold on the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking to Vijay Singh, an eight-time winner this year, three weeks ago.

“In order to … earn the No. 1 ranking, you have to win,” Woods said. “Who’s won more the last two years? Obviously, it’s Vijay. When I had that five-year run where I won five-plus tournaments, yeah, I was going to be No. 1 in the world because I was winning a lot.

“That’s how you earn No. 1 and that’s how you stay there.”

Singh won’t add to his two-point lead over Woods this week, though. He withdrew from the American Express Championship on Monday after finding damage from Hurricane Jeanne at his beachfront home in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

Woods said those second-place finishes in his last two starts are encouraging. He feels he’s laid the foundation with the work he’s done on his swing in the last year and now he needs to concentrate on “cleaning up” his rounds.

“All I know is that I just need to eliminate a couple mistakes per round -- a simple up-and-down or a missed fairway here or missing the green on the correct side – just simple things,” said Woods, who has placed among the top three six times this year.

“It’s a fine line between finishing in the top five and winning a championship. It’s not that much, and it’s little things like that that end up costing me wins.”