Friday, February 16, 2001
Tiger omnipresent, even when absent
By LYLE SPENCER
The Press-Enterprise
LA QUNTA, Calif. — Tiger Woods is nowhere to be seen at the
Bob Hope Classic, but his presence is everywhere.
You see it on the leaderboard, in all the red numbers. You see
it just as distinctly in the firm bodies of the men chasing what
Tiger has: a firm grip on their game.
You look at David Duval, and he's not the David Duval of 1998.
This guy has muscles, tone, the body of an athlete.
It's that way all through the ranks. No longer do critics scoff
and say, “What, are you crazy?” when somebody puts golfers
and athletes in the same sentence. The man from Cypress changed
everything with his game and his frame.
“Tiger has certainly elevated the standard to a higher level,”
Jeff Maggert said, having thrown his best shots at PGA West and
Bermuda Dunes these past two days in the Bob Hope Classic. “This
is the start of my 11th year, and the game has gotten better every
year.
“Players keep getting better, more athletic. The kids are
better athletes.
“Across the board, players are taking note of keeping physically
conditioned. I remember when I started playing, they said (if
you're) 6-foot, that's too tall. The ideal golfer was 5-9, 5-10.
Now everyone's over 6-foot. These kids are all strong, and they're
hitting the ball a long way.
“Golf's attracting a lot stronger athletes than it did 15,
20 years ago.”
Woods is an athlete on the golf course unlike any of the greats
who preceded him. He has changed the whole perception of the game
with his striking physical appearance as much as with his striking
of the ball.
There's no way these guys would be in gyms lifting weights in
November and December, trimming the fat and building the pecs
and biceps, if Woods hadn't come along with that basketball body
and starting outdriving everybody by 30 yards.
They'd be home lifting cocktails, not weights. From the moment
he appeared in '96, Woods has forced tour pros to get serious
about conditioning if they have any interest in keeping up.
“I took almost 11 weeks off at the end of the year,”
Maggert said. “That's a long stretch for me, and it really
rejuvenated me.
“I worked hard in the gym, stayed in good shape. I have a
family — my kids are 12, 10 and 9, at an age when they have
a lot of activities. The only drawback to being on tour is being
on the road 25, 30 weeks. The older I get, the older my family
gets.”
Woods is making no memories at the Hope. No matter. What he's
done for his sport goes beyond what Michael Jordan did for the
NBA, Joe Montana for the NFL, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa for
baseball. Those sports had been elevated by legendary figures
before these men came along.
In his impact on his sport, Tiger goes up there with Babe Ruth,
Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky.
The Great One pushed the NHL's boundaries deep into the southern
part of North America, taking Canada's passion to places where
it never would have come if not for No. 99. Tiger has done that
in expanding golf's horizons.
“Our sport has enjoyed a lot of success the last 10 years,”
Maggert said. “Every tournament is a good tournament.
When Tiger came aboard four, five years ago, it gave us a boost
in the direction we were headed.
“I saw last week that the ratings for the (Buick Invitational)
were higher than for the NBA All-Star game. That's great for us.
A lot of young people are attracted to our game.”
Maggert knows it starts and ends with Woods, his vast appeal.
“I think it's 100 percent positive to have a guy like that
in your sport,” Maggert said. “Look at what Michael
Jordan did for the NBA. Tiger is awesome. I wish there were 10
of him — and I was one of them.”
If there's a subtle backlash among Tour members, Maggert sees
it for what it really is.
“Certainly it's not jealousy,” he said. “Envy,
maybe. I wish I could do what he's doing. He's doing things I
dreamed about when I was a kid.”
Even when he's nowhere to be seen, he's everywhere. That's Tiger's
most amazing achievement of all.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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