Saturday, November 11, 2000
Tanaka on the attack, Woods
just two behind
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
SOTOGRANDE, Spain (AP) — Feeling dwarfed
by a world-class field, Hidemichi Tanaka said his goal this week
in the American Express Championship was to get Tiger Woods' autograph.
He might leave with something much more valuable.
Wearing an enormous smile as he walked away
from swirling winds at the Valderrama Golf Club, the tiny Japanese
player came up big Saturday with a 2-under 70 and stood one round
away from the biggest victory of his career.
Tanaka, playing in his first World Golf
Championship event, was at 207 and had a one-stroke lead over
Mike Weir of Canada and Mark Calcavecchia.
“Amazing,” Tanaka said, one of
the few words in English he has grasped.
Two other words he knows well are “Tiger
Woods,” and Tanaka only had to listen to the cheers ahead
of him to realize the world's No. 1 player was very much in the
picture.
The gallery gave Woods a huge ovation when
he finally got his revenge at No. 17 with a two-putt birdie. Woods
gave them a bow, then gave the rest of the field something to
worry about overnight — the defending champion had another
69 and was only two shots back.
“I was able to grind it around today
and put myself in position to win,” said Woods, who is trying
to become golf's first $10 million man and the first player in
50 years to win at least 10 times in one PGA Tour season.
It should be quite a show.
Calcavecchia birdied five of his first seven
holes and was leading at 10 under until playing the back nine
in 1 over. Nick Price, the leader after the first two days, had
five bogeys in a round of 74 and was tied with Woods at 209.
Colin Montgomerie, needing a victory to
have any chance of winning an eighth straight European money title,
saw his reign likely come to an end with three bogeys on the final
five holes for a 73 that dropped him eight strokes back.
“Don't mention the Order of Merit,”
he said. “I've had enough. We'll talk about it tomorrow.”
All the buzz Saturday was about Tanaka,
a 5-foot-5 bundle of laughs who plays to the gallery and can mimic
the swings of nearly two dozen players. When asked for his height,
he sat upright and dangled his feet just off the ground.
The gallery, however, was enamored with
him.
“I am so small, if the people see me,
they agree that I could do such a great, potential performance,”
he said through a translator.
Lost in the translation was that he feels
as though he has much to prove. While a two-time winner on the
Japanese tour this year, he never has competed against so many
accomplished players, least of all Woods.
“Very surprised that I am staying here
in this position, because maybe the result is better than which
I usually have,” he said. “I do not know how to win.”
That hasn't been a problem for the 24-year-old
Woods, who already has won 24 times in a career that began only
four years ago and became the youngest player to complete the
Grand Slam when he won the British Open in July.
This will be the third straight week Woods
has been within two strokes of the lead going into the final round.
He finished third at Disney, and was runner-up last week in the
Tour Championship.
“If I win this tournament, it will
make me feel much better that he's in the field,” Weir said.
Weir, another mighty mite in golf, should
not be overlooked. He fixed a posture problem on the practice
range and turned in a 65, the best score of the third round and
a 10-stroke improvement from Friday.
Technique wasn't the only difference.
“The key was four shots on No. 17,”
he said.
After hitting twice into the water for a
triple bogey on Friday, Weir hit a 4-iron behind the hole for
a two-putt birdie, his seventh in a nearly flawless round under
wind that regularly changed direction.
The 17th is the most controversial hole
on a Valderrama course often described as goofy — and that's
from players trying to pay a compliment.
No one felt redemption like Woods, who hit
into the water guarding the sloping green in three consecutive
rounds dating to last year's tournament.
Woods must have wondered whether the water
was his destiny again. After another huge drive, he picked a few
blades of grass to judge the wind. Just inches away from his ball
was the sand-filled divot from where he hit his approach Friday.
That one was a 9-iron that hit the bank
and trickled down into the water.
“A perfect 8-iron,” caddie Steve
Williams told him.
The ball launched high into the cool, overcast
skies and landed 18 feet behind the flag. Woods removed his cap
and bowed, one of the few times the Spanish gallery cheered a
shot that stayed on the green.
“I just wanted to have a little fun
with it,” Woods said. “It was a neat little moment.”
It was a great time for Tanaka, who tugged
on his shirt to show the gallery how nervous he was and bowed
to them when his third shot at the 17th stopped a foot from the
hole for a tap-in birdie.
He hopes to keep smiling Sunday, no small
task with $1 million on the line for a victory that would fulfill
his dream of playing in the United States.
Maybe then, Woods will want his autograph.
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