Saturday, June 16, 2001
The defiant grin is firmly
in place
By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — He hit more bad
shots in the first two rounds than he usually does in a month's
worth of tournaments. Instead of being shaken, Tiger Woods was
stirred.
He walked off the steambath that was the
Southern Hills Country Club at midafternoon in need of a search
party to find the leaderboard. Even so, the defiant grin was firmly
in place.
“From what I've been told on TV, I'm
hitting the ball to the right,” Woods said.
He paused.
The grin widened.
He wanted to make sure his critics had all
the ammunition they needed.
“To be honest with you, I've pulled
a couple left, flared a couple, fatted a couple, hit a few more
right, a few long and a few short.
“I guess,” Woods said, brightening
even more, “I've got the whole gamut covered.”
Coming from most golfers, this would be
the start of a concession speech. Woods made it sound like the
beginning of the end, all right — for everybody else at the
U.S. Open.
In the few strides it took him to reach
an interview area set up behind the 18th green, he learned co-leader
Mark Brooks had shot 64. He didn't need to hear much more.
“You shoot 6-under-par, you're going
to move up the leaderboard,” Woods said. “That's what
happens when you play a golf course that's set up this difficult.
That's the beauty of it.”
The rest of the field at the U.S. Open hit
the pillow Friday night wondering what's next. Most are more worried
about his game than their own. They have no idea whether Woods
is bluffing, whether he can shoot par — let alone 6-under
— with the swing he's been wrestling for two days. But having
seen him steal a tournament from eight shots back on three separate
occasions, they're not too eager to find out.
Their games are about limits, his is about
possibilities. And the possibility that Woods may have exhausted
his quota of bad shots was going to keep more than a few of them
from falling asleep.
“The way he plays,” co-leader
J.L. Lewis said, “he's never out of it. He's always got a
chance.”
Lewis is a 40-year-old journeyman who has
won just once since turning pro in 1984. He'd just completed one
of the best rounds of his life, a second consecutive 68 that left
him tied with Brooks and Retief Goosen. Asked whether his start
or Tiger's was the greater surprise, Lewis didn't hesitate. Like
the rest of the country, he's seen Woods gazing out from the cover
of Newsweek magazine. Apparently, the kid looks no less imposing
because of the nine strokes separating them.
“I'm more surprised by him,” Lewis
said. “I'm more surprised he's behind me.”
Woods is so good that the shots he misses
become as interesting as the ones he makes. He blocked the first
tee shot of his opening round into the right rough, repeated it
several more times in the first few holes, and has been playing
very un-Tiger-like golf ever since.
A fast-moving storm that suspended play
Thursday caught Woods on the 10th green, facing an 8-foot putt
for par. He awoke at 4:30 a.m. Friday, returned to the 10th for
the 7 a.m. start and coolly dropped the putt. It wouldn't be fair
to call it the highlight of his day, but it wouldn't be far off,
either.
He sandwiched a birdie between two bogeys
to finish his first round at 4-over-par 74. He segued smoothly
into his second round, running off three straight pars before
trouble found him again. Two bogeys later, he was standing on
the sixth tee still looking for his swing.
“It was just a little bit of timing.
I finally got it in sync and hit the ball, for the most part,
all right,” he said. “I didn't hit it great, but good
enough to where I shouldn't have put myself in some of the spots
I put myself in.”
The real question now is whether Woods,
defiant grin and all, is bluffing. He made two birdies in a row
early in the second nine of his second round, but killed any momentum
by missing a curling 8-footer at No. 16 to save par. He finished
that round at 71, good enough to make the cut, but far enough
from contention to make everybody else wonder what was going on.
“I think you're always surprised when
he doesn't play well,” Brooks said. “I don't know what
that is here for him. But if I can shoot 64, he can shoot 60.”
Echoed Goosen: “We know Tiger can get
on a roll so quickly. I don't think nine shots back is anything
that makes him think he's out of the tournament.”
There was no telling that from the grin
on the guy underneath the swoosh cap. But if it were anybody else,
the discussion wouldn't have even made it into the weekend.
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