Wednesday, July 18, 2001
Bjorn: Woods is back on his game
By Hank Gola
New York Daily News
(KRT)
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — Here we go again. Another
major, another time for figuring
who might contend with Tiger Woods.
As usual, the leading person to beat Woods at this week’s
British Open is Woods himself.
His swing coach, Butch Harmon, had the tabloid writers slobbering
when he told them, “Even if
you put a blindfold on Tiger this week, he could still win the
title. When Tiger is on his game, no one
can beat him.”
As incredible a statement as that is, few could dispute it.
“We all know when it comes down to it, there are 155
good players here and one that is a bit out
of this world,” assessed Thomas Bjorn, who finished a distant
runner-up to Tiger last year at St.
Andrews. “If he has a great week like he did last year, he
is going to be very, very difficult to compete
with. If he plays his normal golf, well, then you step up your
game and have the greatest week of your
life, you can beat him.”
However, the Dane added, “There are a lot of guys that
come into this tournament with a lot of
confidence, me being one of them. If there is a time to take Tiger
on, it is now.”
After stubbing his toe at Southern Hills, where his string
of major titles ended at four, Woods is
not riding the hot horse. Since he won for the fifth time this
year at the Memorial, Woods has finished
out of the top 10 in three straight tournaments for the first
time since 1998.
Tiger headed over the pond early and spent last week in Ireland
on a fishing and hunting
expedition, the former for relaxation, the latter for his old
golf game. He thinks he may have found it.
Though coy as usual, Woods said several times yesterday that
he is “starting to hit the ball better.
“It was just a matter of practicing and getting some
reps in,” he said. “I was able to do that in
Ireland . . . hit plenty of balls. I got here yesterday and I
was starting to get it . . . today I hit it a little
better.”
Woods identified “something small” in his swing
that he said “led to other breakdowns.” He
worked hard on perfecting his swing plane so that his wrist angle
was better.
“Once I fixed that, everything has seemed to come back
and I am starting to hit the ball the way I
know I can hit it,” Woods said.
Bjorn can attest to that. He played with Woods both at the
U.S. Open and during a practice
round Tuesday.
“He looks like he is right back where he is at his best,”
Bjorn said. “He looks very confident. He
looked better than he has ever, I think. He looks very, very good
at the moment.”
Although Woods has never won at Royal Lytham St. Annes, he
has good vibrations from the
place. In 1996, he tied the amateur record with a second-round
66. He said it was the first time he
knew he could play with the big guys and that he was ready to
take his game to the next level.
That said, Woods thinks that the course is set up much harder
this time.
“The rough was real sparse and you could blow it anywhere,”
he said. “This year we had a lot of
rain. The rough is up. If I was to play under these conditions
as an amateur, I think the result might
have been different.”
Some people, including Ernie Els, have even suggested that
Lytham may not set up as well for
Woods. It is rather shorter and rather narrow and he’ll have
to hit a lot fewer woods off the tee, as he
had to do at Southern Hills.
“For any player, I don’t care if it is a short course
or a long course,” he said. “If you are playing
well you are going to score well, whether it is . . . quote unquote
- set up for you or not.”
In other words, if Woods is on his game, Lytham won’t
beat him and they can save the blindfold
for the rest of the field.
© 2001, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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