Woods will handle great expectations
By Blaine Newnham
The Seattle Times
Fred Couples remembers when he won the Masters. He handled
Augusta National. It was what came later for which he was unprepared.
"I didn't ask for five people to circle me, to protect
me, the way they did Tiger Woods," he said. "I really
didn't know any better."
The crowds, the requests, the expectations, the disappointments,
they were nothing Fred Couples wanted.
He just wanted to play golf.
"It affected my game," he said. "But Tiger Woods
knows what he is doing. He has help."
And a plan.
The very outrageous statement by Earl Woods that his son would
"do more than anyone to change humanity" gives Woods
a chance to not only survive his Miracle at the Masters, but to
improve upon it.
Unlike any athlete we've seen since perhaps Jackie Robinson,
Woods has an agenda that transcends winning championships and
setting records.
Couples and Ken Griffey Jr., for example, are extraordinarily
gifted athletes. They insulate themselves from pressure by insisting
that they are just playing a game. They choose not to take themselves
seriously.
Woods is different. His father says there isn't anything he
can't accomplish. His mother calls him a "universal child."
He is yin and yang. His father is hard-driving West, his mother
patient East. They insist he is a messiah.
"Tiger Woods has an opportunity to do something for the
human race that no golfer ever has done," said Gary Player,
the South African who has won three Masters titles. "Think
about the black people in Africa, 400 million of them, watching
Tiger Woods win the Masters."
The point is Tiger Woods is thinking about it. He won't get
lost in the adoration surrounding his triumph at Augusta. He won't
be harried by the media, or worried that his appearances will
make or break tournaments, as they will.
He won't because there are more important things to think about.
Self-absorption will be left to others.
"If you win, this is the price of winning," Woods
said after the Masters. "I have to understand that. As I've
gotten older, I understand why the Big Guy Up in the Sky has given
me some of this talent. The reason is to help people."
I saw Bob Beamon jump more than 29 feet to break the world
record in the long jump by almost two feet in the 1968 Olympics.
I'm not sure anything since had both the excellence and the surprise
of Woods' 12-stroke victory at the Masters.
My wife, who is no golf fan, cried as Tiger and Earl embraced
after the victory. The victory transcended golf, just as the Woods
family hoped it would.
Now the expectations seem unrealistic. Woods was listed a 5,000-to-1
shot to win golf's grand slam before his Masters win, now he is
100-to-1.
He is no better than a 7-to-1 shot to win any of the three
remaining majors: the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA.
Couples called Woods the "best player there is right now.
"His game is much better than mine. But courses are suited
to players, I know that. Augusta is suited for Tiger. Now at the
U.S. Open, he's going to have to really, really play his best.
Can he? Sure, he can."
The world outside of golf might think he is a cinch to win
all four. Surely, they think he is the best player who ever lived.
He isn't. His victory at Augusta, given his age and his domination,
might be the sport's greatest achievement. But he still hasn't
done what Jack Nicklaus did in winning three majors by the time
he was 23. Or winning 20 overall.
Woods can do that. But at Congressional Country Club, in Bethesda,
Md., he will face a long, tight course for the U.S. Open. The
drives he hit Sunday off No. 15 and No. 18 at Augusta would get
him in big trouble. The rough and winds will test him at Troon
for the British Open. Then there is the PGA at venerable Winged
Foot outside New York, where the greens have been called upside-down
bath tubs.
A year later, he will have to deal with the tall trees of Sahalee
as the PGA comes to Seattle.
The expectations will be great. For Woods, however, they are
only a subplot to a bigger goal of changing the world. I doubt
he'll let one get in the way of the other.
(Blaine Newnham is a sports columnist for the Seattle Times.
Write to him at: Seattle Times, 1120 John Street, Seattle, Wash.
98109.)
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