Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Woods takes aim at history
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — All it took was one hole to
illustrate why nothing seems capable of keeping Tiger Woods from
his place in history at the home of golf.
On the 15th hole during a peaceful practice round Tuesday morning,
Woods took a mighty swing with his driver and watched the ball
disappear against the dull, gray skies over St. Andrews. His group
walked 379 yards before they found it.
“Look where Tiger is,” swing coach Butch Harmon said
to Mark Calcavecchia and Mark O'Meara.
The length was expected, and one reason Woods is such a huge favorite
this week.
It's what he did after his drive that showed why he can win major
championships by a dozen shots or more, and why at age 24 he is
only one leg away from becoming just the fifth player to win the
career Grand Slam.
The ball had dropped into a pot bunker the size of a kiddie pool.
There was barely enough room for Woods to take a stance, the back
of his knees nearly pressed against the sodded walls.
Woods squeezed the ball out of the sand, over the lip and onto
the green, some 15 feet from the flag. The silence finally was
broken by two words from his caddie.
“Nice shot.”
And now, two words for the other 155 players in the field who
will try to claim the 129th British Open and keep Woods from becoming
only the youngest player to win all four major championships.
Good luck.
Woods doesn't win every week, but he has won 14 of his last 26
tournaments worldwide, an astounding rate. And only twice during
that stretch — neither of those majors — has he failed
to get into contention on Sunday.
“I just try to keep getting better and see how good I can
get,” he said.
O'Meara had said before the U.S. Open that he thought Woods was
the best player the game had ever seen. A 15-stroke victory at
Pebble Beach, the largest margin ever in a major championship,
did nothing to convince him otherwise.
“He's got the complete game,” O'Meara said. “He's
got power, accuracy, high, soft long irons, good touch, good imagination,
good trouble shotmaker, great putter, tough mentally, great heart,
determined to win ... what's missing?”
Only a British Open, and Woods hopes to take care of that over
72 holes on an Old Course that evolved on the links land off the
Firth of Forth more than 500 years ago.
“If there's any two tournaments you want to win, and have
them on specific golf courses, you're going to want to win the
U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and win the British Open at St. Andrews,”
Woods said.
“It's just ironic it happened to be in the same year, and
ironic the fact I get to have the chance to complete the Grand
Slam on the most historic golf course ever designed,” he
said. “It's just a wonderful opportunity.”
And it's ironic that the last man to complete the Grand Slam was
the very man whose records Woods is chasing — Jack Nicklaus,
who is back for perhaps his final Open on a course where he won
twice.
“Back in those days, nobody really talked about the Grand
Slam,” said Nicklaus, who finally won his first British Open
in 1966 at Muirfield and went on to complete the career slam three
times over by 1978. “It wasn't until three or four years
later that I found out I was one of only four guys who had done
that.”
That hasn't been the case with Woods.
From the time he won his first major, the 1997 Masters by a record
12 strokes, the countdown to Nicklaus' benchmark of 18 professional
majors was under way.
Perhaps he will approach that someday, depending on his health
and desire. Woods isn't willing to look past Thursday, when the
Open begins on a course that is hard, dry and fast, a test unlike
any other major championship.
Four holes have been lengthened, but that shouldn't be a problem.
The Old Course is so firm that Woods found some spots in the fairway
to actually be faster than the greens.
“You go out there 40 yards away from the green, hit a putt
and it runs fast, then slows down on the green,” Woods said.
“It's different to what we are used to playing in the States.
It's also different than we're used to seeing in British Opens.”
That brings an extra element of luck normally associated with
a British Open, where the wind can shift in direction and intensity
without notice, where humps and bumps along the fairway can cause
a ball to carom into one of the 112 bunkers, some with walls so
steep the only safe play is backwards.
All of this will be facing Woods this week, along with several
players determined to give him a better run than they did at Pebble
Beach.
“He's got 72 holes to play like the rest of us,” said
Nick Price, the 1994 British Open champion. “If he plays
well, all eyes are focused on him. But he's got to play well.
If he's not at the top of his game, I think he's very beatable.
And he knows that.”
Ernie Els has had great success at St. Andrews, primarily in the
Dunhill Cup. He is coming off a victory at Loch Lomond, his first
in 18 months. Lee Westwood has won three times in the last three
months, starting with a comeback victory over Woods in Germany.
No, Westwood doesn't fear Woods. He only fears what Woods can
do.
“He is so much better than everybody else when every aspect
of his game is on that it's possible for him to win tournaments
by 15 shots,” Westwood said.
For Woods, his record-shattering victory at Pebble Beach is a
distant memory. A Sunday stroll across the famed Swilken bridge
on the 18th fairway is too far in the future.
“When it's time to play Thursday, I couldn't care less about
the slam,” he said. “It's time to play, and I need to
stay in the present, focus on the shot at hand and get the job
done. If I don't get the job done, there won't be any slam this
year.”
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