Orlando leaders ward off Tiger thoughts

By Simon Evans

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Tiger Woods rose ominously from 20th place to share top spot with four opponents at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday and his rivals now have the difficult task of keeping him out of mind.

Woods, with 63 career PGA Tour wins, has made a habit of sneaking up the leaderboard before pouncing for victory on a Sunday and few would bet against him doing it once more as he searches for his ninth win in 10 tournaments.

But none of the four challenging him at the top of the leaderboard are going to use "pressure" an excuse if they fail.

"If I shoot even par tomorrow and lose coming, say 15th, I didn't play bad because of Tiger," said one of the leading five, American Bubba Watson.

"I didn't play as well as I wanted to because of me, because of what is going on in my head, my mental thoughts. Tiger just has better mental thoughts than anybody else on the planet right now," he said.

Despite describing Woods as "the best ever", Watson, ranked 115th in the world, said there is no question of a fear factor.

"Tiger Woods is a great player but nobody is really fearful, they are fearful of the shot at hand, not who is standing next to him," he added.

Another lowly ranked player at the top of the leaderboard, No. 137 Bart Bryant, said that Woods' ability is actually underrated by most observers but that being up against the best does not change a player's approach.