Sunday, June 18, 2000
Tiger's lead at Open almost
profane
By Brad Townsend
The Dallas Morning News
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Tiger Woods
was not perfect Saturday. He triple-bogeyed a hole. He also yanked
a tee shot into the rocks by the Pacific Ocean, after which millions
of TV viewers heard him vent a string of profanities.
Rays of hope for the other U.S. Open contenders?
Hardly.
Woods will carry a record-shattering 10-shot
lead into Sunday's final round at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The
only thing more staggering than the margin is the fact it could
have been more.
“The bigger the lead, the more you
have to concentrate,” Woods, somehow keeping a straight face,
said of his strategy for Sunday. “If you give your opponents
some kind of hope, they can turn the tide on you.”
Right. Never mind that in the U.S. Open's
100-year history, the previous largest third-round lead was seven
shots by Jim Barnes in 1921. Barnes won by nine.
Woods (8 under) is the only player in the
red. His closest pursuer and Sunday playing partner Ernie Els
is 2 over. Els, winner of the `94 and `97 U.S. Opens, completed
his round of 3-under 68 about three hours before Woods completed
his round of 71.
Woods began the day at 9 under, with a three-shot
lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez and six holes to play in his second
round, which had been suspended by darkness Friday.
Woods completed his second-round 69, despite
yanking his tee shot into the rocks on No. 18. His six-shot lead
over Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn after two rounds broke the previous
36-hole record of five shots, set by Willie Anderson in 1903.
Woods then persevered during his afternoon
third round despite a triple-bogey on the par four third hole.
“What Tiger is doing is incredible,”
said Fred Couples, as Woods entered the back nine with an eight-stroke
lead. “He could have a 10-shot lead before this day is over.
I don't see anyone catching him. We all know he's very good and
this proves it.
“He's lapping the field on a very,
very hard course, and there's not any question by far who is the
best player.”
When reminded that the wind could blow hard
Sunday, as it did Saturday.
“If it blows tomorrow, he can shoot
80 and still win,” Couples said.
Woods' performance is shades of the 1997
Masters, when Woods carried a nine-stroke lead into the final
round and won by a record 12 shots.
But this, Woods said, has been a more impressive
performance because this is Pebble Beach. This is a course that
yielded an average score of 77.124 Saturday.
“To tell you the truth, I wasn't too
impressed the first two days because he does it all the time,”
veteran Rocco Mediate said. “But what he's doing today is
kind of scary after making triple on one hole.”
As recently as two years ago, this was the
major championship Woods supposedly couldn't win because he lacked
accuracy off the tee and the patience to avoid blowup holes.
Now, at age 24, he is on the verge of added
a U.S. Open title to his `97 Masters and `99 PGA Championship
titles. He is about to become the 14th player to win three or
more legs of the four-tournament modern grand slam.
The last time a player won his third leg
of the grand slam was 1986, when Raymond Floyd won the U.S. Open.
“Tomorrow Sunday if I go out and play
golf the way I know I can, somebody is going to have to shoot
a really a low number,” Woods admitted with a smile.
Really, much like Augusta National in `97,
Sunday's question won't be whether Woods wins, but how many records
he will break.
The largest margin of victory in a U.S.
Open is 11 strokes by Willie Smith in 1899. The largest winning
margin post since 1900? Barnes' nine-stroke win in 1921.
Woods was asked of his dreams as a youngster,
and whether he thought he would ever be leading the U.S. Open
by 10 shots entering Sunday.
“No, I'm usually playing against Jack
Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan and usually it's neck
and neck,” he said. “But I've never had anything like
this, even in fantasy golf, playing late in the evenings.”
(c) 2000, The Dallas Morning
News.
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