Sunday, September 10, 2000
Woods, Waite on top of crowded
Canadian Open
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
OAKVILLE, Ontario (AP) — Grant Waite
finally gets another chance to play head-to-head with Tiger Woods.
Only this time, the Canadian Open is on the line.
And Woods is no longer in high school.
Woods navigated through a traffic jam of
players Saturday at Glen Abbey with an 8-under-par 64, and Waite
recovered from a shaky start by playing the final six holes in
5-under to grab a share of the lead with the No. 1 player in the
world.
Both were at 15-under 201, one stroke ahead
of J.L. Lewis and Stephen Ames, a Canadian resident who reportedly
made critical remarks of Woods earlier in the year.
Waite, who recovered from a scrambling front
nine for a 4-under 68, last played with Woods in the 1993 Byron
Nelson Classic.
“He was 17 and I could beat him then,”
Waite said. “He wasn't as intimidating.”
Woods is every bit of that now.
A victory would be the perfect end to an
incredible summer during which he won three straight majors and
completed the career Grand Slam. At stake Sunday is a chance to
become the only player besides Lee Trevino in 1971 to win the
innocuous “Triple Crown” — the U.S. Open, British
Open and Canadian Open — in the same year.
“An Open is an Open,” Woods said.
“A national open is something you take pride in winning.”
He'll face a new cast of characters, similar
to his victory in the PGA Championship in which he was challenged
by players with not much experience posing with a trophy.
Waite, who had a one-stroke lead after 36
holes, won for the only time on the PGA Tour in the 1993 Kemper
Open. That happened to follow his experience playing with Woods
in Dallas, where both missed the cut.
“Maybe he rubbed off on me,” Waite
said.
Lewis, who won the John Deere Classic a
year ago, eagled the 18th hole to get closer to the leaders. He
was joined by Ames, who had a chance to tie the course record
at Glen Abbey until he missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the last
hole.
Ames had a 63, the low score of the tournament,
and he might be the only player capable of drawing more cheers
than Woods. Ames, a native of Trinidad & Tobago, moved to
Calgary six years ago and is trying to become a Canadian citizen.
He needs approval from the government, but
the massive gallery surrounding the 18th green gave him a strong
endorsement with a standing ovation.
The relationship with Woods hasn't always
been the best. Ames was quoted in the Calgary Herald in April
as calling Woods a “spoiled 24-year-old” who was disrespectful
of his peers.
Ames later said he was taken out of context,
and said he apologized to Woods.
“I don't think we'll have boxing gloves
on,” Ames said.
None are needed, because Waite held it together
and went into the final pairing with Woods.
It will be the second straight week in Canada
that Waite has played in the final pairing. He finished one stroke
behind Rory Sabbatini last week in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Waite called that a “building block” but he now has
some serious work to do Sunday.
Woods, still struggling with lingering effects
of the flu, is getting better each day. Even more daunting to
his relatively unknown challengers is his record — 21-2 worldwide
when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.
“A lot of these players haven't won
a lot, but on a golf course like this you can get away with a
lot,” Woods said. “It's pretty much wide open because
so many players are bunched up.”
That's the way it was all day, with as many
as six players tied for the lead at one point.
Woods, who has won half of his 16 events
on the PGA Tour this year, wasted little time joining the fray
with a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 2 and then a 25-footer from
the fringe on No. 3 that dropped on its last turn.
He caught a break on the par-4 eighth when
his drive sailed right, plunked a spectator on the head and bounced
out to the fairway. Woods apologized, gave him a ball and made
sure all he had was a knot on his head.
“He wasn't all there, which is understandable,”
Woods said.
Woods was.
He rolled in a 15-footer for birdie on No.
11 and two-putted for another birdie on the 13th that gave him
a share of the lead with Ames in what looked to be a duel between
two players intent on separating themselves from the pack.
Ames holed a 40-footer for birdie over the
ridge on the 15th, got up-and-down for another birdie on the par-5
16th, and was almost embarrassed when a 35-foot putt he struck
too hard rammed into the back of the cup on 17.
Each putt gave him a one-stroke advantage
over Woods. Each time, Woods responded.
As Ames crouched over his 3-foot par putt
on the 18th hole, he backed off when he heard a cheer resound
from over the clubhouse by the 16th, where Woods made a 10-foot
eagle putt to take the lead.
Divots:
Corey Pavin tied a PGA Tour record in the second round, taking
only 18 putts in his round of 65, twice chipping in from off the
green. Only five other players have gone a round with 18 putts,
last accomplished by Jim McGovern in the second round of the St.
Jude Classic on the TPC at Southwind. ... Hal Sutton will be “defending”
his title a year later in the Texas Open in two weeks. Sutton,
the 1998 winner, had to skip last year because of another commitment.
“That little exhibition,” he said with a smile and a
wink, referring to the Ryder Cup. “I promised them I'd come
back this year.”
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