WOODS' SEASON NOT OVER YET.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Tiger Woods brings his Target World Challenge back to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks this December, and the annual 16-man field again will be one of the best.

The world's top-ranked player returns, but for the first time in five years, that player is not Woods. Vijay Singh took over the top spot this year and leads a marquee field that includes Woods, defending champion Davis Love III, British Open champion Todd Hamilton and fan favorites Fred Couples and John Daly.

U.S. Ryder Cup team members Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Chris DiMarco, Chad Campbell, Kenny Perry and Jay Haas also are in the field. So are Padraig Harrington, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Colin Montgomerie of the winning European Ryder Cup team and Stephen Ames - the only player from Trinidad & Tobago ever to win on the PGA Tour.

The field, which is made up of the defending champion, the top 11 available players from the world rankings as of Oct. 3, and four special exemptions - Montgomerie, Daly, Couples and 51-year-old Haas this year - includes 12 of the top 20.

``We have another fantastic field and a good venue,'' said tournament host and 2001 event winner Woods, who also has one less bachelor in

the field. He and Elin Nordegren were married last week in Barbados.

``We decided probably the middle of this year. We didn't tell anybody until the last minute,'' Woods said. ``It doesn't change who we are and how we've been in our relationship for the past few years, so from that standpoint nothing will change.''

What the eight-time major champion would like to see change is his victory total. Woods won just once this year, following a five-year stretch when he had at least five victories a year and nine in 2000, when he won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship.

``I've been very excited about the way my game came together at the end of the year,'' he said. ``Basically, from the Western Open on the weekend to now, I've really improved. On top of that, the last few tournaments I've played, it's gone up another notch.

But Woods said he is getting closer and will be pushing ``to get a couple of W's'' before the end of the year.

``I'm showing some great signs for the future,'' he said. ``I don't have as many things on my checklist on each and every shot. It's getting smaller and smaller. So, from that standpoint, I'm getting closer to where I can hit a golf shot.''

Getting closer, of course, is a seriously subjective topic for a player of Woods' ability. He is one of just two players - Retief Goosen is the other - who has at least one PGA Tour victory in each of his past four seasons. But when that one win follows 39 over his previous eight tour seasons, it seems like a slip.

Probably 99 percent of the tour would jump at the chance to have that kind of a slip. Through 20 events this season, Woods ranks fourth in tour scoring (69.10) and fourth in tour earnings ($4,717,472).

Two weeks ago, in the WGC American Express Championship in Kilkenny, Ireland, he delivered another indication that his game is on the upswing. He finished in the top 10 for the ninth time in his past 11 starts, despite playing with back spasms.

``We kind of threw that one out because of an injury,'' Woods said. ``But, even being injured, I had a top 10, so it goes to show you that with the work I've done, I can play through that, which is even better.

``So I'm pretty excited about it. The prospects of the past month and a half, what I've done, I need to solidify it a little more toward the end of the year.''

The Target World Challenge will provide double incentive, since it also is a fund-raiser for the Tiger Woods Learning Center and Woods' Start Something program.

His Learning Center (www.twlc.org), which is scheduled to open next spring in Anaheim, near his hometown of Cypress, and Woods' four-year-old Start Something program (www.Target.com/startsomething) both were created to help youths ages 8 to 17 with education and identifying and achieving personal goals.

``I think we're doing some pretty cool things,'' Woods said.

Also cool is the field for his Dec. 8-12 tournament at Sherwood, where Daly, a nine-time tour driving champion, makes his event debut and Singh comes in at the end of a season approaching Woods' magical 2000 campaign.

With $9,455,566, Singh already has surpassed Woods' tour-record season-earnings total of $9,188,321. He enters this week one victory shy of tying Woods' nine-win total of 2000 and also leads the tour in scoring, with a 68.92 average.

Information: [phone] or www.targetworldchallenge.com.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Tiger Woods has announced the field for this year's Target World Challenge in Thousand Oaks.

Peter Morrison/Associated Press

(2) SINGH

Box:

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