TEEING OFF

Five things to look for on the professional golf scene:

1. One thing about Tiger Woods, he can’t be accused of playing too much, just winning too much. He’s taking this week and next week off, after winning the Accenture Match Play Championship on Sunday in Arizona and will put his five-tournament winning streak on the line at Bay Hill in Florida on March 13.

It probably doesn’t add up to much, but that means Woods will arrive at Arnold Palmer’s tournament after having played only one PGA Tour event since the Buick Invitational ended Jan. 27, a span of six weeks.

Yes, Woods played -- and won -- at Dubai on the European Tour the week after Torrey Pines, but we’re now nine tournaments deep into the PGA Tour year and the schedule-writing is on the wall.

When he goes to the Masters, Woods will have played five tournaments (he’s also got the CA Championship at Doral on his radar).

That’s the same number as last year. So what’s different this year? Clearly, it’s the fact that he hasn’t lost yet, and that streak dates to the first weekend in September.

In the meantime, the chatter is rising about Woods’ comments when he was asked about a perfect season and said that’s exactly his intent. Former Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton told the Associated Press that it’s “laughable” to even consider.

Sutton is probably right, but all Woods has done this year is lengthen the gap between himself and every other player.

He won at Torrey Pines by a tournament-record eight shots.

He won at Dubai with his largest fourth-round comeback in eight years featuring five birdies in his last seven holes and a closing round of 65.

He won the Accenture with the biggest last-day rout in tournament history.

2. The reshuffle isn’t restricted to card tables in Las Vegas.

The reshuffle on the PGA Tour, which happened at the conclusion of the West Coast swing, works this way: The top 25 and ties from the last qualifying school and the top money winners from the Nationwide Tour a year ago had eight weeks to move up or down in their priority ranking that is used to fill out tournament fields.

Rookie Dustin Johnson made the biggest jump, from 34th to first, after a tie for 10th at the Sony, a tie for 12th at the Bob Hope and a tie for seventh at Pebble Beach.

3. What can Lorena Ochoa do for an encore? She can start figuring it out in Singapore in this week’s $2-million HSBC Women’s Champions.

Ochoa won eight times on the LPGA Tour last year, earned more than $4.3 million, won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average and won her second player-of-the-year award.

It may be a tough week for Ochoa, 26, since the field of 78 includes every tournament winner on the LPGA Tour in 2007, LPGA major winners from 2005 to 2007 and the leading money winners from international tours.

4. You can be sure they’re still busily debating Round 2 (remember Kelly Tilghman?) of the Golf Channel’s embarrassing moments at headquarters in Orlando, Fla. Analyst Nick Faldo torched the Nike golf ball in Sunday’s telecast of the Accenture Match Play, a questionable move since he used to endorse Nike and had signed a deal with TaylorMade only three days before.

One more misstep by one more anchor and somebody’s going to start speculating it’s all a plot to boost Golf Channel’s ratings.

5. Fred Couples continues to travel the interview circuit as the new captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team and he’s rarely at a loss for words. He said he would be a hands-off captain.

“I’m not going to tell them what they feel like. ‘Now, you’re not swinging very good, can you move your thumbs a couple inches down the shaft?’ Or ‘We need this four-footer.’ I think he knows,” he said.

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PGA TOUR

Honda Classic

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 1-3 p.m., 6:30-8:30 p.m.) and Ch. 4 (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

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LPGA TOUR

HSBC Women’s Champions

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: Singapore.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, noon-1 p.m., 3:30-4:30 p.m.; Saturday, 3:30-4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 3:30-4:30 p.m.).

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All times Pacific

Associated Press

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A SLICE OF LIFE

Annika Sorenstam, 37, in her 15th year

on the LPGA Tour, when asked about how much longer she will continue to play:

‘I would probably say that I’m on the back nine of my career. I’m not really sure what hole I’m on.’

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STAT OF THE WEEK

Brian Gay’s victory last week at the Mayakoba Classic, his first after 293 tournaments, made him the first first-time winner on the PGA Tour this year. A year ago at this point in the season, there were two: Charley Hoffman at the Bob Hope and Henrik Stenson at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com