Tiger Woods must overcome packed crowds, scorching heat and a strong local contingent bent on humbling the world No. 1 on home soil to win his first title Down Under at this week's Australian Masters. Woods, who was flustered by camera-happy fans at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai last week, will not be short of company at Melbourne's Kingston Heath course, where a crowd of 100,000 will witness his first appearance in Australia for 11 years. While the American laughed off the 7,000 fans and low-hovering helicopters watching his practice round Tuesday, organizers have vowed to swoop on errant mobile phone and camera-users among the first-time golf-watchers in the crowd. Little can be done about the weather, however, which has Melbourne in the grip of a record-breaking late spring heatwave that is forecast to bake Kingston Heath's already tricky greens into flint-hard frying pans over the weekend. Players who battle through the heat to make the cut at the A$1.5 million ($1.4 million) event will be rewarded with temperatures expected to reach 35 degree Celsius day Saturday, while Sunday is forecast to cool to a slightly more bearable 30. Woods is no stranger to Melbourne's sandbelt golf courses, having edged Australian great Greg Norman one-up in a singles match during the United States' only losing campaign for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in 1998. The 33-year-old also played the Masters' 1997 edition, finishing joint eighth behind local veteran Peter Lonard at nearby Huntingdale. Standing in the way of Woods's first title Down Under are some of Australia's biggest names, all keen to upstage the tournament's headline act. “It does seem that way that everyone seems to have given him the tournament already,” said former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. World No. 12 Ogilvy is joined by compatriots Adam Scott and 2007 champion Aaron Baddeley, the former returning to welcome form with a third-place finish at the recent Singapore Open. Kerr wins 3-Tour Challenge Cristie Kerr shot 4-under 32 on the back nine to lead the US LPGA to the win in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge in Nevada Tuesday. It was the US LPGA's fifth win in the made-for-TV event that pits three-person teams from the US PGA Tour, Champions Tour and US LPGA. The US PGA Tour leads with seven wins and the Champions Tour has six. The US LPGA team of Kerr, Suzann Pettersen and Natalie Gulbis had a combined score of 6 under on the final nine holes to beat the men's team of Stewart Cink, Fred Couples and Bubba Watson by two strokes and win $300,000. Combined with their $100,000 purse from the opening nine, the women won the overall title by $70,000 over the men. The seniors team of Nick Price, Fred Funk and Jay Haas finished third with $270,000 after earning $200,000 by winning the front nine with a team score of 9 under. The women struggled to a third-place finish at 4-over on the front nine, while the men came in second at 3
