Jones gets chill playing hungry Tiger

TUCSON, Arizona – The prospect of facing a hungry Tiger Woods gave Brendan Jones chills, but the unassuming Aussie is still thrilled to have a front-row seat when Woods makes his much-anticipated return.

Jones learned last Tuesday that he had booked the 64th and last berth in the elite World Golf Championships event.

Then the rumors intensified that Woods’s return to competition after an eight-month absence was imminent.

“Thursday or Friday morning back home somebody said Tiger has announced he’s coming back, and I got a few chills up the back of my neck,” said Jones, who as the No. 64 will take on top seed Woods in the first round.

“I was overjoyed,” Jones said Monday. “The chance to play probably the best player – of my generation anyway. So yeah, very excited to have that opportunity for one of the most anticipated comebacks in any sport, really.

“To have a front row seat to all of it is a great honor.”

Jones, 33, has spent much of his career playing in Japan, where he has won eight titles on the Japanese Tour – most recently the Tsuruya Open in April of 2007.

His only season on the USPGA Tour was 2005, when he finished 144th on the money list.

With his Japanese schedule not due to start until April, Jones said he hadn’t even been practising in the run-up to the Match Play.

But he does have one thing going for him.

“Well, I’m an Australian, so I’ve got some sort of chance,” Jones said, a reference to the fact that three of Woods’s six early exits at the event have come at the hands of Australians - in the first round to Peter O’Malley in 2002 and to Nick O’Hern in the second round in 2005 and third round in 2007.

“Obviously, I know I’m a longshot,” Jones said. “I have got nothing to lose. I can just go out, be a lot more aggressive than what I normally would be.”     (AP)