Tiger Woods conquers Thailand, his second home
By Kristin Huckshorn / Knight-Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
BANGNA, Thailand - They have not rechristened the country Tigerland.
He is on loan after all, like a priceless work of art sent overseas
for others to admire and then return.
But if it can only borrow Tiger Woods for the week, Thailand
is making the most of the display.
Woods, the part-Thai Stanford University alum and instant sports
icon, is the showpiece in a $300,000 tournament that otherwise
features a low-rent field from the Asian PGA.
The competition notwithstanding, he played more like Tigger
than a tiger in the opening round Thursday. Dulled by jet lag,
95-degree heat and thick humidity on the largely treeless course
outside Bangkok, Woods shot a 2-under-par 70, four strokes behind
leader Lee Petters of the United Arab Emirates. Afterward, he
admitted: "I'm going to have to shape up a lot of things
... tighten the screws up a bit."
Playing in the tournament fulfills a promise he made to his
mother, Kultida "Tida" Woods, to appear in her homeland,
which he considers a second home despite just three visits in
21 years.
"Being half Thai, it means a lot," to play here,
said Woods, whose gallery included two cousins. "This is
the other half of the culture I was raised under....It's like
coming to my other home."
This is Woods' first taste of his enormous appeal in Asia.
His entrance onto the scene coincides with the emergence of an
Asian middle class - a trend fueling participation and interest
in previously elitist sports like golf.
In Thailand, he is receiving pop-star treatment, replete with
controversy and adulation from young women.
"He's so cute!," said Sutasinee Thapmongkol, 21,
as she watched Woods practice putting.
"We're so proud of him because he's Thai," said Wichuda
Jariyapan, who brought her 6-year-old son, an avid golfer, to
watch his idol play.
Thais draped necklaces of sweet-smelling yellow flowers around
Woods' neck Tuesday night after he flew in from Los Angeles. Local
television stations carried the midnight scene from the airport
live, coverage most recently reserved for the arrivals of President
Clinton and Queen Elizabeth.
He is scheduled to receive a commendation this week signed
by the King of Thailand.
Newspapers run his photograph on the front pages every day.
One paper ran 10 photos Thursday. More than 300 journalists, at
least 50 from Japan, are covering the tournament, compared with
a total of 60 last year. The U.S. magazine Golf World sent a reporter.
Its rival, Golf Week, sent two.
A debate is raging over whether he should receive honorary
Thai citizenship. Some Thais have argued against the designation.
Woods said it would bring his family "a lot of honor, a lot
of pride." But Colin Dunjohn, a tournament official, said
"he is not receiving citizenship" partly because of
tax complications.
Dunjohn also disputed reports that Woods is being paid a $500,000
appearance fee, insisting the amount is "nowhere near"
that sum.
Another debate centers on whether Woods' mother had announced
that any candidate for the post of Mrs. Tiger Woods preferably
would be Thai and would have to sign a prenuptial agreement.
"I will marry whomever I fall in love with," Woods
said when the question came up Thursday.
Tiger was slightly miffed at his mother after reading the comments
from a press conference she gave here last week. "Nothing
came out like I said it," Tida Woods said as she walked the
course wearing leopard-print culottes, a matching vest and a black
hat with a leopard-print band.
In another comment she will likely regret, Tida Woods said
Thursday that her son's schedule was too packed to fit in a meeting
with Thailand's king. "How does he have time to meet the
king?" she asked.
In fact, the king, a revered figure in the country, has not
asked to meet Woods.
Tida Woods, 53, understands the royal family's mythic standing.
She grew up in Bangkok. She met Earl Woods when he was stationed
in Thailand during the Vietnam War and she was working at a U.S.
military base.
Earl Woods is back home in the states, awaiting heart surgery.
One quarter American Indian, a quarter Chinese and half black,
he is often quoted stressing the importance of Tiger's black heritage.
But Tida Woods - a quarter Chinese, a quarter white and half Thai
- believes Tiger "is more Asian."
"A mother raises her son and he had an Asian mother,"
she said.
Though her son speaks only a few words of Thai, she instilled
a Thai cultural identity in him, she said. That includes a passing
interest in Buddhism. Woods wears a thick gold chain with a Buddhist
amulet given him by his grandmother, who died nine years ago.
But quizzed by Thai reporters Thursday, Woods admitted he is
not a devout Buddhist, "practicing now and then, when I feel
like it."
He needs whatever inner peace he can muster this week.
Woods quit a Pro-Am round Wednesday after suffering a stomach
virus. "He threw up right there on the 13th green,"
said Clarke Jones, an International Management Group agent accompanying
Woods, as Woods played the hole Thursday.
That and his play in the first round led some observers to
question sandwiching this tournament and one in Australia next
week between Pebble Beach and the Los Angeles Open later this
month.
Jerry Chang, who played on the Stanford golf team with Woods
and joined him on this trip, said the attention in Thailand "has
been a little overwhelming for him."
Indeed, Woods appeared tense during his round, rarely smiling
or pumping his fist, two of his trademarks. A crowd of several
hundred tailed him, leaving a few dozen specters to follow the
rest of the field. As a result, the other threesomes looked like
businessmen out for relaxed Sunday morning rounds.
Even the play of Woods' group held little interest beyond the
star attraction. After heplayed out each hole, "the crowd
walked out and did not show respect to the other golfers,"
said Prayad Marksaeng, the top Thai golfer in the tournament who
played with Woods. Marksaeng took the slight well - he shot 67,
good for a second-place tie, one stroke behind Petters.
As for Woods, he noted that his play must improve but insisted
that "anything on the first day in the red is a good start."
The tournament ends Sunday. And Tiger already has proven adept
at the big finish.
(c) 1997, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury
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