Thursday, June 14, 2001
Tracking Tiger
By JOHN LINDSAY
Scripps Howard News Service
TULSA, Okla. — Tracking Tiger Woods Wednesday in final preparations
for the 101st United States Open at Southern Hills Country Club:
SHOT OF THE DAY: Woods played nine holes, starting at 7 a.m.,
with pals Mark O'Meara and Stanford teammate Notah Begay. He spent
time later on the range, mostly working on his short irons and
wedges, getting a feel for control distances in the swirling winds.
Most of his preparation was spent working on his putting touch
on the tricky Southern Hills greens.
OOPS: In an ironic pairing, Woods will play the first two rounds
with Denmark's Thomas Bjorn. When the two were last paired together
at the Dubai Classic in February, Bjorn beat Woods with Tiger
suffering a double bogey on the 18th hole of the final round.
Woods was mired in a mini-slump at the time (mostly with his putting)
and Bjorn was quoted saying afterwards that “Tiger has to
learn how to lose.”
Tiger denies any animosity between the two.
LOOK OUT FOR: The highly-sloped green on the brutish 466-yard
par-4 18th.
“All I can say is that green on 18, if you hit a good, solid
shot in the middle of the green, there is a good chance that the
ball will wind up rolling 40 yards off the green,” snapped
Woods. “And that's a pretty harsh penalty for a good solid
shot, especially the hole being 470, and you've got a 2-or 3-iron
— or even lumber (fairway woods) — where it doesn't
really reward a good shot. That's tough. But everyone has to play
it.”
The dust bowl winds, crackling away from the south at 15 miles
per hour with gusts to 25 Wednesday afternoon, may also be a factor.
The forecast is for more of the same Thursday with gradually diminishing
winds over the weekend. Still, some holes may play much longer
or shorter.
“The hardest part is if the wind switches and it comes back
into our face on some of these holes, then it's going to be quite
a challenge,”
ON THE COURSE: The galleries were disappointed Wednesday as Woods
spent little time on the course in the afternoon heat, which again
climbed over 90 degrees with high humidity.
The heat may be a bigger problem for fans — especially if
they try to keep up with Tiger on the rolling Southern Hills layout.
Ten fans were treated for heat exhaustion Tuesday and several
more were cases were reported Wednesday.
“As the big names like Tiger go through the course, that's
when we start seeing people,” said Randy Harper, U.S. Open
nursing supervisor. “People just aren't prepared and they're
not drinking enough water.”
Crowds in excess of 35,000 are expected this weekend.
TEE TIME: Woods, Bjorn and U.S. Amateur champion Jeff Quinney
of Eugene, Ore. tee off at 12:30 (Central) Thursday afternoon
and 8:10 a.m. Friday for the second round.
(Contract John Lindsay at lindsayj(at)shns.com. Visit SHNS on
the Web at http://www.shns.com.)
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