Friday, April 7, 2000
Tiger struggles on windy first
day at Augusta
By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Standing in the
tee box at Augusta National's fourth hole, Tiger Woods was stumped.
The greatest golfer on the planet couldn't
figure out the most basic of questions: Which way was the wind
blowing?
Woods leaned over, grabbed a few blades
of grass and flicked them in the air. They scattered straight
down the fairway.
Unconvinced, he repeated the procedure.
This time, the blades dispersed to his left.
Growing a bit desperate, Woods went through
the same routine a third time. Instead of breaking the tie, he
wound up with another option when the grass floated to his right.
“It was a different shot every time,”
Woods would say later, a sense of hopelessness in his voice after
Thursday's opening round of the Masters. “It's pretty hard
out there.”
Woods came to Augusta as a heavy favorite
to win his second green jacket. Instead, he struggled to a 3-over-par
75, his worst round in nearly a year and seven shots behind surprise
leader Dennis Paulson.
But Woods wasn't angry. Quite the contrary.
Showing maturity well beyond his 24 years, he realized early in
the round that the swirling gusts and rock-hard greens made this
a matter of survival, not domination.
“I think it's fine. It's not easy out
there. Look at the scores,” said Woods, glancing at the board
showing only nine of the 95 players under par. “That's a
great indicator to tell you that it's not easy out there.”
Woods had a double-bogey at No. 10 and that
wasn't even his worst hole of the day. The nadir came at 12, the
picturesque par-3 in the heart of Amen Corner. With 135 yards
to the front edge of the green, he pulled an 8-iron out of the
bag and hit what he thought was a solid shot.
Instead, the ball landed just short of the
right bunker and made a beeline for Rae's Creek, the tranquil
body of water that has swallowed up so many hopes and dreams over
the years. After taking his stroke penalty, Woods cleared the
water with his third shot to about 12 feet past the hole.
From there, he three-putted on the lightning-quick
green for his first triple-bogey since the final round of the
World Golf Championship at Valderrama on Nov. 7 — an amazing
streak of consistency that stretched over 541 holes.
“I thought I hit a pretty good shot,”
Woods said of his first swing at 12. “The wind just stood
it up a little bit.”
In all but one of his seven PGA Tour events
this year, Woods has finished first or second. He already has
piled up more than $3.2 million in earnings and prompted some
golfers to moan that they are merely hoping to be a runner-up
anytime there's a Tiger in the field.
But Augusta has a way of evening the competition.
Since Woods put up a record-setting, 18-under
270 three years ago to win the Masters, he has yet to break 70.
The 75 matched his final-round score a year ago, meaning he is
6 over for his last two trips around the hallowed grounds. In
between, he went 68 rounds without shooting that high.
“This was probably one of the most
difficult days I've seen here, no doubt about it,” Woods
said. “I haven't been coming that long, but from what I've
seen, this golf course is playing difficult. The wind is swirling
and blowing, it's gusting and calm. It's not easy to putt either.
The wind's moving the ball and there a lot of grain on the green.
It makes for a very difficult day.”
He knew things could have been much worse.
Woods bounced back with birdies at 13 and 16, backing up the words
he relayed to caddie Steve Williams as they walked away from the
disastrous 12th hole.
“If we can just get to 2-over par or
3-over par, we're fine,” Woods told Williams. “We'll
just keep plugging along and making the putts when we can.”
Again, this was all about survival.
“It's not a great start, but it's not
bad either,” Woods said. “I'm right in the ballgame.”
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