Monday, May 15, 2000
For CBS, tournament has ended once Tiger
has been eliminated
By Tim Cowlishaw
The Dallas Morning News
(KRT)
IRVING, Texas— For the benefit of CBS, Tiger Woods put on
a show Sunday. And once the Woods magic was spent with his having
finished one stroke in back of eventual winner Jesper Parnevik,
CBS pulled the plug on the show.
The network inexplicably abandoned coverage during the playoff,
leaving the locals at KTVT-Ch. 11 to scramble to show Parnevik
holding off Davis Love III for the win.
The message CBS delivered was clear. Woods, at any score, is the
real story.
When the day began, Woods and David Duval figured to provide an
intriguing subplot with their Sunday 11:56 a.m. pairing. This
was no Shootout at Sherwood, no contrived made-for-TV event.
This was what every PGA tournament has sought for close to two
years. Or at least it almost was.
Woods and Duval, No. 1 and No. 2 in the world, playing together
on Sunday in the final pairing would be the ultimate. At the GTE
Byron Nelson Classic, they played as a twosome on a Sunday for
the first time ever, but they were six tee times from the end.
The fact that the likes of Shigeki Maruyama and Jerry Smith were
among those playing behind them served to indicate some of the
problems Woods and Duval had endured in the first three rounds.
With both at 3 under par, seven shots behind third-round leaders
John Huston and Love, what were the legitimate chances of either
Woods or Duval making a real title run?
Well, it can safely be said that Woods wasn't thinking about just
cashing a top-five paycheck. In fact, as Woods left the practice
range, swing coach Butch Harmon had these words for him:
See ya back here when you're getting ready for the playoff.
Minutes later, a confident Harmon would tell a reporter, “If
he shoots 31 on the front, the game is on.”
Tiger shot 30 on the front. Five under par. By the time he made
the turn, he had reduced a seven-shot deficit to a single stroke.
The charge got under way with a birdie at No. 3 before Woods backed
a sand wedge into the hole from 85 yards on No. 4 for an eagle.
But it wasn't until after the huge gallery roared that Woods realized
the ball had rolled into the hole on the elevated green.
“It was funny. It was hard to get excited over a shot you
never saw,” Woods said. “Yeah, it went in, but you're
blinded by the bunker.”
As for Duval, he was just blinded by the bright lights of playing
with Tiger. They played 18 holes, and Duval had the honors once.
His birdie at No. 8 that got him back to 3 under gave him the
tee box on No. 9.
But Woods birdied nine to regain the honors and never lost another
hole to Duval, whose par-70 round left him in a tie for 20th.
This wasn't as bad as the Ryder Cup round Duval played in September
when paired with Woods — the American Dream Team lost to
Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood with Duval providing no help —
but it was about as nondescript.
Instead of the Shootout at Sherwood, this more closely resembled
Little Big Horn for Duval. He began the day with a red 3 next
to his name and never got it to 4.
Woods, asked if the pairing had lived up to expectations, said,
“I could care less. I don't think he could care, either.
We're both great friends, and we're going out there to get ourselves
back in the tournament, not worrying about who is No. 1 or 2.”
But there was little disputing who ranked first in this pairing.
While Duval once again vanished in Woods' considerable shadow,
Tiger made a run for the money.
When Woods' final birdie attempt slid by the hole on 18, Woods
had “settled” for a 63 that got him to 10 under par.
At that moment, he was one shot behind Parnevik, who was still
out on the course.
That playoff Harmon had talked about was not far from reality.
“I felt today going out I needed to get it to double digits
10 under somehow,” Woods said before watching the leaders
play the last two holes of regulation. “I felt if I could
possibly get to 11, it would be a bonus.
“Hopefully, I could play some more. We'll see what happens.”
In the end, Woods missed the playoff by one shot. By his count,
he missed five birdie putts that could have gone in (at Nos. 1,
2, 11, 12 and 18).
One of those putts rolls in, and Woods is in the playoff.
One of those putts goes in, and CBS stays with the Nelson Classic
right to the end.
Like it or not, that defines the real power of Tiger Woods as
emphatically as any 300-yard drive he has ever launched.
(c) 2000, The Dallas Morning News.
Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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