After a series of disappointing tournament performances in recent months, the humanity of Tiger Woods was further emphasised on the eve of the $5 million NEC Invitational here at Firestone yesterday. On completing an early-morning practice round, the defending champion headed for his hotel with an upset stomach.

There is no question of his being forced to withdraw: apparently a little rest should do the trick. And the recuperative process should be helped by a location dear to his heart. Remarkably, Woods has won his last five tournaments in the state of Ohio, for prize money of almost $4 million.

They comprise the last three Memorial Tournaments at Muirfield Village and the last two NEC Invitationals. In the process, he carded a course-record 61 in the second-round here last year, en route to an astonishing tournament record aggregate of 259 - 21-under-par.

Now that the American Ryder Cup team has been finalised, the plan was that this tournament should leave the European side close to completion. So it was that European entry was limited to the top 12 in the Ryder Cup table last Sunday night.

Unfortunately, the change of format takes no account of the fact that Jesper Parnevik and Sergio Garcia are also serious contenders, who are now unable to aspire above wild-card status.

Ireland's three challengers, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, are all in good form, with McGinley being predictably upbeat in the wake of his win at Celtic Manor and a fine performance in the USPGA Championship.

"I've put my foot on the accelerator and it's stayed down," he said. "I feel relaxed in terms of my Ryder Cup position, but the job is not yet completed."

It is a crucial week, however, for England's Ian Poulter whose performance in Atlanta ousted Andrew Coltart from the chosen 12. "Playing at The Belfry would be the most exciting challenge of my career," said the current Moroccan Open champion.

With respect to European Ryder Cup matters, however, the chief concern on this side of the Atlantic, is the well-being of Woods. And naturally, it is based on sound financial reasons.

Last month, the USPGA Tour negotiated a television contract valued at $850 million to run from 2003 to 2006. Last Sunday, in the absence of Woods from the leaderboard at Atlanta, CBS had 36 per cent fewer viewers. And this came after British Open figures which hit a five-year low.

Remarkable though it may seem, Woods had not managed a top-10 finish in any of his last five tournaments. He was tied 12th in the US Open; tied 16th in the Buick Classic; tied 20th in the Western Open; tied 25th at Royal Lytham and tied 29th last Sunday.

Though the money-men may be worried, Woods is not. "If you plan to play this game for a long period of time - and I plan to play competitively as long as Arnold (Palmer) has been playing, into my 60s and 70s - you can't beat yourself up over every single shot and every single round in every single tournament," he said."You can't have everything going your way all the time, especially in this sport which is pretty fickle."

Much of these sentiments were endorsed by his World Cup and prospective Ryder Cup partner, David Duval, who expressed the view that the Masters win last April took far more out of Woods than any of us may have imagined. "We all know how difficult this game is and when you look at historical, winning percentages, Tiger's are great right now," said the British Open champion.

Duval went on: "I would imagine that his success rate will go down as his career progresses. You just can't win every week. I find it funny when people talk about how badly Tiger is playing right now, especially when he has won five times this year, including three in a row. And I guess he hasn't missed a cut in God knows how long.

"How long is it going to take for people to realise that he's human? That he's 25? I think the realisation will eventually come when people stop asking questions about a supposed slump every time Tiger stops doesn't win."

In the meantime, with a $1 million top prize, the money here is well worth playing for, whatever one's aspirations about winning. It is certainly a far removed from the time of Harvey S Firestone who, in 1929, established this country club so as to reward his employees with relatively inexpensive golf.

As Woods has discovered, nothing stays the same.