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From PGATour.com

By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent

If you think that a major championship isn''t quite the same without No. 1 Tiger Woods in the field, then you''d also have to acknowledge the significance of his absence this week at the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational.

Woods has won the tournament six times at Firestone Country Club''s South Course in Akron, Ohio, including the last three. His victory earlier this year in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship gives him 15 titles overall in the series begun in 1999 that some have referred to, not without cause, as the Woods Golf Championships.

Other than Torrey Pines, where earlier this year he won the U.S. Open and before that his fourth straight Buick Invitational, no venue has been more accommodating to Woods than Firestone''s storied South Course, which has hosted professional golf events since 1954.

So you have to say that prospects are brighter for the 81 men in attendance when the $8 million event begins Thursday on what is one of the most difficult layouts on the PGA Tour.

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