Woods Hopes For Smoother Greens, Fewer Mistakes
in Round 2
By JOHN DIAMOND Associated Press Writer
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Golf wisdom says even champions can have
one bad round per tournament. If so, Tiger Woods already has gone
through his heading into the second day of the U.S. Open.
But there's golf wisdom and there are golf facts. The fact
is that only once in 96 previous U.S. Opens has the winner come
back from nine shots behind. Jack Fleck did it in 1955 and that's
what Woods was up against today with 54 holes to go at Congressional
Country Club.
Woods' 4-over 74 put him nine shots behind Colin Montgomerie
after the first round. True, Woods blew past Montgomerie en route
to his sensational Masters' victory, but Congressional, with its
long rough and longer holes, won't yield birdies like Augusta
National.
Then there are the greens.
The man who played 72 holes at Augusta National without a three-putt
had two of them in the first nine of his opening round Thursday.
On the back side, Woods started with a birdie on a brutal par
4, but followed that by making two bogeys and two double-bogeys
in his final eight holes. He capped off his round by pulling a
7-iron into the drink at the par-3 18th.
"I have had some disappointing rounds lately, and this
was one of them," Woods told a USGA official after the round.
He was too angry to stop and take questions from reporters hanging
around the scorer's tent. Asked by the USGA official what was
going through Woods' mind after the 74, he replied, "You
don't want to know."
At Augusta, Woods began with a rocky front nine, then turned
the momentum around with a splendid back nine. This time, Woods
started the Open well and then faded.
Still, Woods tried to be optimistic and to show some patience,
a key attribute for winning a tournament that conjures up agonizing
and frustrating moments even for those having their best day.
"I will be all right tomorrow," Woods said before
heading to the driving range to go over a few things with his
coach, Butch Harmon. "I will try and figure out what went
wrong today, what I did wrong and tomorrow hopefully make some
corrections."
Playing in the afternoon on a damp day, Woods was up against
well-trodden greens all the way around. With an early tee time
today he was hoping for smoother greens.
"We will have perfect greens early in the morning. And
hopefully I will get the putter rolling and make some putts,"
Woods said.
Woods' playing partners in the first two rounds, major champions
in their own right, said that with a little luck and a little
patience, things might have gone better for him.
"I'm sure he's not pleased, but he didn't play that badly,"
said Steve Jones, the defending Open champion. "He made a
couple of mistakes at the end, but he'll learn. He's got a lot
of pressure on him."
Jones, who shot 72, speculated that Tom Lehman's shot close
to the pin on the par-3 18th got Woods thinking birdie when he
should have been thinking par.
"He tried to hit it right at it. Sometimes you've got
to aim 20 feet right," Jones said.
Said Woods of the 7-iron, "I just hit a bad shot."
British Open champion Tom Lehman played himself into contention
with a fine 67. Lehman thought Woods got quite a few bad breaks.
On the fifth hole, a 4-foot putt for par circled the hole and
stayed out. Woods was cursing under his breath as he stormed off
the green, then took his hat off and whipped it against his knee
in anger.
"He had some bad breaks," said Lehman. "He had
a couple of shots up against the rough. He had a couple of putts
that looked like they couldn't miss that did. And he hit a couple
of bad shots, like everybody does."
|
