HERTFORDSHIRE, England -- Tiger Woods could very well win his sixth straight PGA TOUR event this week at The Grove.

He holds a five-stroke lead at the midway point of his title defense at the World Golf Championships-American Express Championship, after all. Should he win on Sunday, though, when Woods goes after the seventh is anybody’s guess.

Counting the HSBC Match Play Championship on the European Tour and the Ryder Cup, Woods has competed seven of the last nine weeks. Not to mention, there was that whirlwind two-day trip to Ireland to bond and practice at The K Club.

Woods is way past ready for a break.

“I just can't wait to go home, and I think the playoffs in baseball are starting Tuesday,” Woods said, with a big smile on his face. “I'm really looking forward to that.”

Woods isn’t sure how long he’ll take off. He’ll definitely watch some baseball -- his Dodgers are bidding for a wild card berth -- and host the second annual OC Block Party to benefit the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim on Oct. 7.

Woods and Fred Couples will do a clinic that morning at Mesa Verda Country Club in Costa Mesa. Then “King of Queens” star Kevin James will host the evening’s entertainment that includes performances by Glen Frey and Joe Walsh of the Eagles. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay will prepare a gourmet dinner.

“I've got a bunch of stuff to do over the next couple weeks,” Woods said. “I know I'm not going to touch a club for a couple weeks.”

Last year’s inaugural Block Party raised more than $1 million for the TWLC.

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Jim Furyk was somewhat taken aback. There was a time, in the not too distant past, when he was peppered with questions about his rather unorthodox swing.

His 2003 U.S. Open title at Olympia Fields appeared to silence the majority of those questions, though. That is, until this week when a reported asked him what people could learn from watching him on the range.

“I'm off-guard,” said Furyk, who had joked at the Ryder Cup that he and Tiger Woods made such a good team because the world’s No. 1 player liked to watch his loopy swing.

“I used to be able to just push play and the words would just come back. I could zone out for about 10 minutes in an interview, but I've lost that knack.”

Furyk, who enters the third round of the American Express Championship 10 under and five strokes off Woods’ lead, said he was not mechanically oriented in anything as a child. His father, Mike, his long-time instructor, recognized that and helped his son learn by feel.

“Some people don't recognize that I'm pretty much in the same positions as everyone else; I just get there a different way,” Furyk said. “Now, my swing to me feels conventional. I don't feel the loop. I feel straight back and straight through. I know where I'm at in my swing by feel, and it feels like everyone else's.

“I always liken it to a great teacher, who would be a man like Harvey Penick, who's someone I never met, but he taught both Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite to play. What's amazing is those two people, even though they're close friends, could not be farther in the spectrum between playing by feel and playing mechanically in their swing. Yet he was able to teach both of those players in their own way.

“I think the lesson is probably to find someone that you're comfortable with as a teacher that you can relate to and that you can understand. … In my opinion, a good teacher doesn't take everyone and try to make them do the same thing. They can relate and they can change and they can adapt to different pupils and teach each pupil in a different way.”