Tiger tackles three in a row for

first time since knee surgery

Tiger Woods is going to play in the next three tournaments on the US Tour schedule, for the first time since he had knee reconstruction surgery since when two in a row is the most he has tried.
The first is this week's Buick Open where he is a two-time winner and has never finished worse than 11th in eight previous starts at Warwick Hills.
Next week Woods will move on to tee it up at the Bridgestone Invitational.
Then it's off to Hazeltine for the US PGA Championship, his last shot at winning a major this year.
That he chose to play the Buick Open was only a mild surprise. Woods likes the golf course, and although he ended a decade-old endorsement contract one year early because of the economy, there remains a sense of loyalty to his longtime relationship with Buick.
Woods didn't offer much insight on his website, saying only that he was looking forward to the Buick Open and ``the golf course suits my eye,'' a loose translation for ``I see myself winning.''
Even though he is leading the US PGA Tour money list by more than $500,000 and his three victories are more than anyone else, he has played only 10 times this year.
Some pundits have suggested Tiger needs to play more.
His last tournament was nothing short of a disaster on a personal front and in terms of his image of invincibility. Woods played a six-hole stretch at Turnberry in seven-over-par and wound up missing the cut in the Open by one shot, only his second missed cut in a major and his first weekend off in three years.
Swing coach Hank Haney worked with him last week in Florida, then offered a self-deprecating assessment as he headed to the airport.
``He's doing really good,'' Haney said, adding, in jest ``He had a bad tournament, and I'm getting fired.''
Haney has been working with Woods for more than five years and knows what kind of scrutiny to expect. He was on the range at Augusta National when Woods vented about how poorly he was hitting the ball, and speculation soon shifted to Haney being shown the door.
Haney looks more at the big picture.
``There isn't cause for that much alarm,'' Haney said. ``He's played so well (before Turnberry), it was a little easier to brush off.''
Even so, there is a sense of urgency this time of the year.
Woods is at the halfway point of his schedule - that includes The Presidents Cup, tournaments in Asia and Australia, and his Chevron World Challenge in December.
Woods rarely plays the week before a major, but there has always been an exception or two for the PGA Championship. He has played five times the week before the PGA Championship, and last year won at Firestone by eight shots before winning the PGA at Southern Hills.
The last time he played three in a row? That was during the inaugural year of the FedEx Cup in 2007, when Woods tied for second at the Deutsche Bank Championship, then won the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.
He has played at least three straight weeks 21 times in his career, and twice won all three events (Disney, Tour Championship and American Express at the end of 1999; and the PGA Championship, Firestone and Deutsche Bank in 2006).
Whether he can win three in a row this time will be as trivial as the other two streaks.
What people will remember is whether Woods wins the last one.