Tiger Woods is a golfer frustrated by the weight of expectation on his shoulders.

That is the view of Woods' Ryder Cup team-mate Hal Sutton, who at Sawgrass todaysets off in pursuit of a repeat of his brilliant Players' Championship victory over the world number one last year.

The richest event in golf total prize fund of £4.3m, with over £770,000 of it to the winner is Woods' last competitive outing before the Masters in a fortnight.

Hopes of the 25-year-old American becoming the first player in golfing history to hold all four major titles at the same time were boosted when he had his first victory of the season at Bay Hill on Sunday.

But Sutton, choosing his words with great thought, appears to doubt that it has eased the pressure on Woods pressure created by the standards he set last season.

''I'm going to step out on a limb here and say a few things,'' said the 42-year-old, whose own preparations for this week were not helped when he fell down the steps of the US Tour fitness trailer on Tuesday and hurt his back.

''I have to be careful how I say this. Tiger raised the bar by winning nine tournaments (12 when you add the Johnnie Walker Classic and PGA Grand Slam in November and then the World Cup with David Duval in December) and he probably can't reproduce that.

''But the problem is that that's where y'all's expectations lie. I mean, let's be real. Let's talk about what's possible and what's not possible, you know.

''I see Tiger being frustrated right now because people are saying that he's not doing this and he's not doing that.

''Tiger is not playing that bad (his worst finish all year is 13th). He's trying to defend himself, yet he's being backed into a corner and I see frustration coming out.''

In what was a clear lecture to the world's media Sutton added: ''Be careful how you handle this because you might make him hate the game before it's over with and we need Tiger in the game.

''I'm being nice about this, but the truth is that he's in a frustrating spot because if he does not fulfil your expectations then it's tough to write good things. He's failing you, in other words. So, you all be careful with that.

''Tiger did something nobody has done in modern times (the last player to win three majors in a season was Ben Hogan in 1953).

''I had a conversation with a writer where he said that if he (Woods) wins the Masters and four other tournaments everything will be okay.

"I said 'Listen to what you just said. How many people do that?'"