Wednesday, August 30, 2000
Tiger Woods bringing golf out
of the dark ages
By Brian Schmitz
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO — Al Michaels was doing the
play-by-play on ABC, talking about long drives, total yards and
hitting the holes. There was real grass, lights, camera and prime-time
action.
Yes, it was . . . Monday Night Golfball?!
Now it's official. When golf dares to work
a room reserved for the NFL's most hallowed institution—and
offers just as many reasons to watch—you know Tiger Woods'
reach has become immeasurable. It extends into the surreal, and
rather routinely.
In his quest to rule the planet, Woods has
made long-held records, par 5s and entire 149-player fields seem
inconsequential. Now Tiger has deemed another factor to be obsolete
or at least unnecessary.
Daylight.
Hours of it used to be required to play
the game, but not in Woods' World. It's golf anywhere, any time,
any time zone. Have extension cord, will travel. Who needs the
sun when you have Tiger showing us the light? Did you see how
Woods vs. Garcia ended live at about 11:25 p.m.? Sure you could.
It was illuminating.
We might be on to something here. Monday
Night Golfball, yeah.
More golf! More golf!
Let's see some more graveyard-shift golf.
Schedule more of these mano-a-mano prizefights. If NBC or CBS
want to make a dent in ABC's Monday Night Football ratings, put
Woods on opposite Al, Dan and Dennis. Put him against anything
on TV. Other than Vince McMahon, nobody else has more juice than
Tiger. Not Kurt Warner or Peyton Manning or even Melissa Stark.
Monday Night Golfball probably won't happen,
but a Woods-Garcia rematch might. If you missed it, Tiger lost!
That's rare, an event not to be missed. Sergio Garcia finished
1-up in the “Battle at Bighorn,” won $1.1 mill and was
fun to follow.
Woods' weakness seems to be match play.
Ah-ha! Hear that, Ernie, Phil and David? Come out, come out, wherever
you are! Match Tiger at nights against guys who fail to gang up
on him during the days. Heck, pair him against a different challenger
on each hole. Is there any other way to make it sporting?
Tiger was feeling sickly and jet-lagged
tired against Garcia, and he still forced him to make the big
putts the 20-year Spaniard star hasn't made all year. He makes
everyone turn their game—and their TV volume—up a notch.
And like Michael Jordan, Tiger will show
you things during his walk that you've never seen before. No matter
how much he dominates, he'll give you a keepsake memory because
his greatness can't be corked. Just like Jordan.
At the NEC Invitational, Woods shot 61 on
Friday. Saturday, he hit a wedge 184 yards (!) to within 2 feet,
playing out of a grab-grass deathtrap. He then wrapped up his
11-stroke win with a legendary moment. Already playing night golf
late Sunday, he nailed his approach a foot from a hole he barely
could see. He is why golf is no longer in the dark.
I love the night lights
The most compelling aspect of Woods vs.
Garcia wasn't the play or Sergio's banter (both players were miked).
It was the surreal setting produced when golf joined Wrigley Field
and the rest of the sports world by playing under the lights.
Make that floodlights. They were shined
at various positions along the last five holes as darkness enveloped
Woods and Garcia about 7:30 p.m. PDT at the picturesque Canyons
Course in Palm Desert, Calif.
It was pretty neat. TV captured the scenic
beauty of California's terrain. Awash in light, it looked like
the moon-landing in `69. It also reminded me of the movie Close
Encounters of the Third Kind, the part where the humanoids were
communicating with the out-of-towners, using search lights and
playing those haunting musical notes.
Sure, Woods vs. Garcia was a made-for-TV
event (as if Dennis Miller isn't). But it turned into an evening-at-the-improv
after everybody had to feel their way to the 18th hole. Fitting
that a guy named Strange was in the ABC booth.
Golf had an eerie, spooky feel to it on
one hand, a festive after-hours atmosphere on the other. “It
was different playing under the lights like other athletes do,”
Woods said.
Tiger keeps taking golf to places it has
never gone.
And he'll work nights.
(c) 2000, The Orlando Sentinel
(Fla.).
Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/. On America
Online, use keyword: OSO.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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