Wednesday, July 18, 2001
Tiger happy with swing again on eve of
British Open
By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Writer
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England (AP) — Fred Couples practiced 50-yard
pitches that barely got off the ground on the fourth green as
the wind howled and rain fell on Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Tiger Woods was already safely inside, his work done for the day.
Woods had gotten out so early that practice partner Adam Scott
got up at 5:15 a.m. and still had to run to meet him at the second
hole.
That he didn't linger, however, said something about the state
of the game of the defending British Open champion, the one player
others fear most in any major championship.
It means Woods is happy with his swing. And that, in turn, means
his current major championship winless streak could easily be
over at one.
“You don't need to beat yourself up and work too hard heading
into Thursday,” Woods said. “It is tough enough as it
is.”
On the eve of the 130th Open, Woods is rested and confident, a
combination that has already earned him six major championships
in his brief professional career.
The swing that let him down at the U.S. Open has been mended,
and a week of fishing and hitting balls in Ireland seems to have
been just the right combination to get the sharpness back in his
game.
“He looks better than he has probably ever,” Thomas
Bjorn said after playing a practice round Tuesday with Woods.
“When he is like he is right now, he is very difficult to
compete with.”
Bjorn, who played with Woods the first two rounds of the U.S.
Open last month, said he saw enough during the early morning practice
round to know Woods is ready.
“He seems to have improved his game a bit,” Bjorn said.
“He looks like he is right back where he is at his best.
And he looks very confident, very relaxed.”
If Woods is to win his second British Open, he will have to do
it under conditions quite unlike last year, when he overpowered
the Old Course at St. Andrews in a record 19 under par for the
second of what would be four major titles in a row.
Royal Lytham & St. Annes provides a much different test, with
deep rough lining the fairways and 196 bunkers that litter the
course. If the wind blows as it did Tuesday, the fairways will
play even tighter and accuracy will be at a premium.
Woods shot a 66 on the same course as an amateur in the second
round of the 1996 Open, and seems eager to test his talents on
a course that doesn't really reward his length.
“I don't care if it's a short course or a long course,”
Woods said. “If you are playing well you are going to score
well.”
That wasn't so evident Tuesday. Players struggled to keep the
ball in the fairway in the gusty winds and played shots they might
otherwise not attempt in a season of tournaments.
Couples was keeping his pitch shots so low to the ground they
almost looked like putts, while practice partner Brad Faxon dumped
a bunch of balls into a bunker on the fourth hole and began digging
his way out.
The wind was blowing against the players on the easier front nine,
putting trains in danger on a railway that runs adjacent to the
opening holes.
“I think it's one of the hardest courses,” said former
champion Greg Norman. “Very narrow fairways and small greens.
It's not overly long, so it doesn't favor the bigger hitters.”
While Woods, who has won 21 of his last 44 official events, is
an overwhelming favorite, the usual list of suspects includes
Davis Love III, David Duval and Phil Mickelson.
And then there's Retief Goosen, who found redemption for a shocking
three-putt on the final green of the U.S. Open to win a playoff
the next day over Mark Brooks. Goosen became the first person
other than Woods to win a major since the 2000 Masters.
Goosen added another win in the Scottish Open over the weekend,
and could make it three national opens in a row with a win here.
“Now that I have been there and know I can play under that
sort of pressure, I see myself having more chances in the other
majors than before,” Goosen said. “It would be great
to keep on playing well and see what happens on Sunday.”
Woods understands what winning a major can do for a player's confidence.
Winning four in a row gives him a unique perspective on what it
takes mentally down the stretch in a major championship.
He also knows how it feels to struggle, although Woods still thought
he had a chance in the U.S. Open well into the final round despite
a flaw in his swing he says has since been fixed.
“It's disappointing when you are not able to perform the
way you want to perform,” Woods said. “You can't play
well all the time. You have to be realistic about it and know
that sometimes it is just not going to work out.”
For the 155 other players who tee off Thursday, their best hope
may be that it is one of those weeks for Woods.
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