Will Masterful Woods have an Open game?
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - There will be no 12-stroke victory at
the U.S. Open. No one will shoot 18 under par at Congressional
Country Club.
If Tiger Woods is to follow his Masters victory with a win
this weekend, it will take a completely different kind of effort.
While Augusta National is a free-swinging course off the tee
that gets tricky around the greens, the U.S. Open requires patience
and precision on every shot during the 72-hole test of will that
begins Thursday.
"It's just a good, long, solid, honest all-in-front-of-you
golf course," Nick Faldo said Wednesday. "There is no
let-up, no easy holes."
Woods won the Masters in a runaway in part because the wide
fairways and nearly complete lack of rough enabled him to unleash
his awesome length off the tee without worries of the consequences
of an errant shot.
"At Augusta, it was like a driving range, bombs away on
the driving," Woods said.
That is no longer the case. These fairways are narrow and the
rough is not only 5 inches high but thick because of the cool,
damp spring in this area.
On a course this long - 7,213 yards with eight par 4s over
430 yards - a tee shot that misses the fairway often means the
player can't go for the green but must merely pitch out of the
rough with an 8-iron or less and hope for a one-putt par.
"You're in 6-iron, 4-iron, 3-iron range a lot on this
golf course," Faldo said, referring to the demanding approach
shots Congressional requires. Those are clubs that can't be hit
out of this rough.
While Augusta was made for Woods' game, the U.S. Open was made
for players like Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, Nick Price,
Tom Lehman, Ernie Els and - among the best longshots - Jim Furyk.
That group of players drives the ball with accuracy and they
all have the composure to deal with the frustrations of U.S. Open
play. The winner will make many bogeys and likely will have a
double bogey or higher on his card.
It is those inevitable disasters at the Open that require the
patience to know that par is a good score, a very good score.
While Woods won the Masters at 18 under, the record for the
Open is 8 under. And the consensus among players at the Open is
that the winning score won't be anywhere nearly that low this
year.
"It has a chance to be over par," Davis Love III,
last year's runner-up with Lehman, said Wednesday. "I'll
take anything under par and let them shoot at it."
The U.S. Open is a tournament where par means something.
"It suits the way I play," said Faldo, who won the
1987 British Open at Muirfield with 18 consecutive pars in the
final round. "I am more than happy with it."
Woods said he probably will use his driver only three times
in each round at Congressional, on Nos. 6, 10 and 15, preferring
a 3-wood and 2-iron off the tree for accuracy.
"You've got to be in the short grass here," he said
about the importance of putting the ball in the fairway off the
tee. "This is a very demanding driving golf course."
While a U.S. Open course at first glance may appear a poor
fit for Woods' game, his tenacity, creativity and competitive
fire make him a contender anywhere.
"My mind is, I feel, the strongest part about me,"
Woods said. "The biggest asset I have is to be able to think
my way around the golf course."
He cited his comeback from a 40 on the front nine in the first
round at the Masters to a 30 on the back nine.
"That's a perfect instance where my game wasn't there,
but I rectified it with my mind," Woods said.
Woods has broken par only once in the five rounds he has played
in his two previous U.S. Opens and last year experienced typical
Open disaster in the first round at Oakland Hills.
Woods was 3 under when he walked off the 13th green and 6 over
when he left the 18th green. Starting on No. 14, Woods went bogey,
double bogey, quadruple bogey - hitting two in the water on No.
16.
"We're very anxious to see what's going to happen here
compared to what transpired at Augusta," Montgomerie said
of the demands now facing Woods. "I believe he is 5-to-1
to win the tournament, and 5-to-1 to miss the cut."
But it's a sure bet no one will get to 18 under par this week.
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