Tiger Woods’ World Challenge is No Walk in the Park

COMMENTARY | It’s been a quiet offseason for Tiger Woods, and he’s had a lot of time to recover, recuperate and refocus during a fall season where he took time off and played in some simple exhibitions with his best rival, Rory McIlroy.

But Woods has one more big event to play in 2012, and it just happens to be his own tournament, the World Challenge presented by Northwestern Mutual.

Some have labeled this event as a non-factor and nothing more than a blip on the radar in terms of prestige, but that’s only partly true. Woods is one of the most competitive players on the TOUR, and he wants to play against and beat the best. He’s done it every year since the event’s inception, and he is figuring to do it again at this year’s 14th annual tournament.

The field will be exceptionally small, but strong, featuring 13 Ryder Cup players and two players who won majors in 2012 in Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. FedEx Cup winner Brandt Snedeker will also headline the list of accomplished players, which reads like a who’s who on the PGA TOUR.

Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk, all Ryder Cup teammates of Woods, will all be in the field.

That field has a combined 19 wins on TOUR in 2012, and it’s indicative of just how serious this tournament is. Though small, only a player that has a chance to win every time he tees it up can beat a field of this caliber.

It’s an ideal stepping stone to winning a major.

Obviously, the stakes can’t be compared, but beating the best in the game always means something. For Woods, it’s the type of win he needs to get back into major championship form. Perhaps he’ll never be back in the sense that the golf world wants him to be, but collecting a win at his tournament against the heavy hitters in the game of golf wouldn’t be a bad way to start.

Michael C. Jones is a Yahoo! Featured Contributor in Sports and covers PGA TOUR as a Southern California-based sports journalist, editor and blogger. He is also the Editor of Sports Out West.

You can follow him on Twitter @MikeJonesTweets