Tiger Already Looking Forward To Kingston Heath

I know, I know, the HSBC event comes first and we should be celebrating a World Golf Championship event played outside the U.S. (Joel Shuchman shares some sights and sounds in this PGATour.com story). 

But we're also talking about a country that bans my blog and well, doesn't have a course like Kingston Heath. Which, incidentally, Tiger Woods is pining to play.

"As far as next week, I don't know a lot about the golf course other than the guys have generally said it's either one or two on their list of venues in Melbourne," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting down there for the first time and taking a look at it and seeing how it figures -- how to figure out how best to play the golf course."

He said what he liked best about Melbourne's golf courses was the bunkers, having previously played at the Royal Melbourne and the Huntingdale.

"Of all the courses that I've seen down there in Melbourne, I've always loved bunkering, some of the best bunkering in the world," he said. "From what the guys have said to me, Kingston Heath is no different."

Anticipation of Tiger's appearance may actually help pay off the big appearance fee since the Daily Telegraph reports that crowds up to 100,000 are expected to watch Tiger on big screens set up to help fill demand for the legions that can't get a ticket to Kingston Heath.

And for us here in the States, even better news: Golf Channel will be broadcasting the Australian Masters, starting Wednesday at 10 PM EST.

In other Australian golf news, Greg Norman pulled out of the Australian Open due to issues with his surgically-repaired shoulder.