Wednesday, February 28, 2001
Woods travels 25.5 hours for a few rounds
By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — It took Tiger Woods 25.5
hours to reach the tip of the Arabian peninsula.
What's he found by taking his game off golf's main road to the
Dubai Desert Classic?
How about the best playing conditions of the early season, where
velvet-like greens and lush, palm-lined fairways reveal themselves
through the ornate gates of the Emirates Golf Club.
“The golf course is in fantastic shape,” said Woods,
the automatic favorite and the reason for the 10,500-fan daily
sellout when play starts Thursday on the 7,127-yard Majlis Course.
“It's nice to be able to putt on greens that roll again.
I made a few putts (in practice), which is kind of nice to see.
“When you hit putts on the West Coast they're not always
going in when you hit a good putt. Here you know they'll be true.”
Even in this port and commercial center on the Persian Gulf, Woods
can't escape queries about a stretch that has left him without
a top-three finish in this season's first five U.S. PGA Tour events.
“They don't understand the game if they think it's a slump,”
said Woods, who said his stroke average was identical to last
year's. Sure, some competitors are 5 yards longer off the tee
and maybe some are no longer intimidated.
But Woods put it off to the breaks of the game. He recalled how,
on one shot last season, he “cold-cocked a kid in Canada
and made birdie on the hole.”
“It's been a pretty good season so far,” he said. “I
feel like I'm close. I've given myself chances. Sometimes the
breaks go your way, sometimes they don't.”
With victories in Asia, Europe and South America, Woods is not
just golf's No. 1 player but it's No. 1 global ambassador. In
the Middle East he's still a curiosity. One Indian reporter asked
him Wednesday if he “practiced mind training,” and a
local journalist asked if he thought about not coming because
of Arab-Israeli tensions.
He rolled his eyes and smiled but the replies were always diplomatic.
“What you realize when you watch me play is I love to compete,”
Woods said. “I don't know if you could say I mind-train or
not off the golf course. ... One of the neat things about being
able to play around the world is trying to influence others in
a positive way because this is just such a great game.”
A private nine-hole exhibition match Tuesday at the nearby Jebel
Ali Hotel course was front-page news, with photos of Woods searching
in thorny brush for a lost ball he never found on the final hole.
Woods and playing partner and friend Mark O'Meara conceded the
hole and the match, but his presence still merited five photos
and a long, stroke-by-stroke story.
“The people have been wonderful,” said Woods, who met
Wednesday with Dubai Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum. Woods and O'Meara arrived by helicopter at the Al Quoz
Stables with the prospect of the world's richest thoroughbred
owner naming a horse for Tiger.
Woods also noted a downside to jet-set travel.
The chartered plane he shared with O'Meara was 5.5 hours late
leaving Los Angeles after Sunday's Nissan Open when a transponder
failed and a second plane had to be found.
Then came the hard part.
“We flew 20 hours to get here. So that's 25.5 hours,”
he said. “It's a long trip. I was pretty hungry.
“It was nice to be able to lay out and not have anyone bug
you, which is nice. That is one of the reason I fly private. It
took us a while to get here, but that's all right.”
Woods' appearance lends instant credibility to a tournament that's
always been a favorite on the European Tour, with former winners
including Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie.
“It's nice when Tiger's in the field,” said Lee Westwood,
Europe's No. 1 player last season. “When you get the world
No. 1, then the title always means a little bit more. And that's
why a major means a little bit more.
“Obviously, if he's in the field it's great for everybody
else.”
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