Tiger didn't win, but he gave the crowd enough
By John Smallwood
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
BETHESDA, Md. - This is what it must have been like when Julius
Erving was playing in the American Basketball Association.
The story is told of how fans flocked to every ABA arena in
which he played, hoping the Doctor would do just one thing they
thought was impossible.
They didn't care if their team won. If Dr. J gave them that
single highlight, they went home happy.
Realistically, by 12:57 Sunday afternoon, Tiger Woods was out
of contention for the 97th U.S. Open.
Woods was nine strokes behind third-round leader Tom Lehman
before he hit his first ball off the tee in the final round.
But at around 4:30, the masses began to flock to the 17th and
18th holes.
If you get up on your tiptoes and the people in front of you
aren't too tall, the view of the 17th fairway from 10 rows behind
the 18th flag really isn't that bad.
At a quarter- to a half-mile away, Woods looked like a stick
figure, but in that bright red shirt, silhouetted by an equally
green fairway, he couldn't be missed.
And when he swung that metal club and it caught the sunlight,
it glistened like Excalibur.
"Did you see that shot?" the question floated from
the gallery.
"Stinky, man, stinky! That's some shot. He's got a lot
of guts for a 21-year old."
It was nice. An approach shot from the 17th fairway that landed
about 4 feet from the cup. Woods sank the putt for birdie - the
final of his three on the day - and the gallery erupted.
They didn't get what they wanted: Woods didn't win the U.S.
Open.
But he gave them enough. Even on a bad day, he gave them a
show - a few spectacular shots for the crowd to remember and go
home happy.
"I'm glad the suffering is over," Woods said after
finishing his first U.S. Open as a professional with a disappointing
6-over 286. "This course wore me out.
"I hit some good shots and I hit some bad shots. It took
its toll on me. It humbled me. It humbled me big time and that's
just the way it is."
Yes, that is the way it is.
Tiger Woods didn't win, and while this might shock some of
those who only started paying attention to golf since Woods won
the Masters, he's going to lose many more times than he wins.
With five PGA Tour victories since he turned professional last
August at the Greater Milwaukee Open, Woods is off to a great
start. But sometimes lost in all the hype, fanfare and lofty expectations
is the fact that he's just 21 years old.
"I don't know," Woods responded when asked if people
should scale back their expectations of him. "I really don't
know, because I don't pay attention to them."
Woods won the Masters and people immediately started talking
about him winning the golf's Grand Slam: The Masters, U.S. Open,
British Open and PGA Championship.
Well, nobody has ever won all four of golf's majors in a single
season. Only Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen
have won all four over the course of their careers.
So how ridiculous was it to think that Woods could accomplish
it his first time out?
"No," Woods said when asked if the potential of a
Grand Slam factored into his performance. "I didn't care
about the grand slam, because I'd have to win not only this week
but two more times.
"You've got to take it one step at a time and one round
at a time. I tried to do that this week, and I just couldn't put
it together.
"Oh, man, I putted horrible this week. My speed was off,
and when your speed is off on greens this fast with this much
slope, your line's going to be off and fluctuating. I just need
to work on my mechanics and hopefully get a better feel."
And there's no shame in that.
Woods isn't going to have his A game every time out. Sometimes,
he's not even going to have his B game. And, sometimes, no matter
how well he plays, somebody is simply going to play better than
he does.
The U.S. Open may be the toughest of the majors for Woods.
Because of its higher roughs, narrower fairways and faster greens,
it's the most technically demanding of the four. It requires the
mastery of many more shots.
It's the least suited to Woods's aggressive, attacking style.
"A U.S. Open is going to humble you whether you want it
to or not because the demands of the U.S. Open are so tough and
are so strenuous that you're going to get worn out," said
Woods, who had five bogies Sunday. "Par around the U.S. Open
is good. I'd love to have made 72 straight pars and see what my
chances were.
"That's just the way a U.S. Open is set up, and I knew
that going in. You know that you're going to go out there and
face holes where you're going to have to have a good tee shot
and a good second shot.
"You have to hit two good shots in a row. Not like a par-5
where I can cheat with a drive and an iron. I didn't press at
all. I didn't play that aggressive, because physically, I didn't
have the skills to do it this week. My game wasn't on this week,
so I couldn't play aggressive. I had to play more toward the back
side and just trust my putting. Unfortunately, my putting kind
of bailed out on me this week."
Expectations are so high on Tiger Woods that it's impossible
for him to live up to them every time out. But he's just 21.
There's plenty of time to learn, and learning from past mistakes
is what Tiger Woods does best.
"My mind was tested," Woods said. "My patience,
my grit, every kind of emotion you can conjure up was tested this
week. I think I held up pretty good, but I could have held up
better.
"I learned a lot. The details of it, I'm not going to
explain to you because I think that's private. I will tell you
this: I did make some mental mistakes out there that I will rectify
so I'll never make them again."
I doubt Tiger Woods, or any golfer for that matter, will ever
win a Grand Slam in a season. But before his career is done, I'll
venture that the career Slam club will have at least one more
member.
(c) 1997, Philadelphia Daily News.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the World Wide Web site of the Philadelphia
Daily News, at http://www.phillynews.com/
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