Tuesday, June 13, 2000
Woods heads elite group that should dominate
U.S. Open
By SUSAN FORNOFF
San Francisco Examiner
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — They call it the U.S. Open because
anyone with a handicap of 1.4 or better can try to qualify. But
the tournament that 156 players will set out to win at Pebble
Beach may as well be called the U.S. Closed. Only the straightest
hitters, savviest scramblers, biggest hearts and most patient
souls need apply for the championship cup on Sunday.
“I remember (Jack) Nicklaus saying that the U.S. Open is
probably the smallest field you ever had to beat,” said that
most qualified of applicants, Tiger Woods. “And it's true,
because usually right around par wins, and you just need to hang
in there. And most of the players don't have that ability to hang
in there, to swallow your pride and hit shots that you don't normally
hit, because you're used to making birdies and having to make
birdies to win.
“Most of the players either haven't learned that, or aren't
willing to change from the birdie mode.”
Woods made his observations last June 20, as he reflected on a
third-place finish at Pinehurst No. 2, where Payne Stewart showed
on the very last hole just how great a score par can be.
Holding a one-stroke lead, he hit a drive slightly right on the
par-4 18th. The marshal walked over and put down a yellow flag
so Stewart would be able to find the ball in the thick rough.
Stewart looked at the lie, picked up his 9iron and laid up short
of the green, then knocked a lob wedge 15 feet short of the hole
and made the putt for 4.
“I had no chance to even think about the green, so I took
my medicine, and put the ball out there where I at least could
give myself a chance to get the ball up and down,” Stewart
said.
Stewart died in a plane crash last October 25, or he would be
among the favorites for this 100th U.S. Open, no matter where
he ranked on the money list or how many tournaments he had won
this season. He had the prerequisite that a U.S. Open champion
most needs, even beyond game and luck.
Explained Davis Love III, who has not won it: “In the Open,
it comes down to scrambling, who can get the ball up-and-down
and make putts and be patient. ... A U.S. Open is not only just
a golf test; it's a mental test and you try to win that battle.”
Woods' remarks last year at Pinehurst — and his first top
10 at the Open in four tries — indicated that he at last
understood this, which means he is to be feared this week.
But any of the world's best players who has learned to swallow
his pride could drink from the cup on Sunday. Love can only hope
he has. Phil Mickelson should have learned a thing or two down
the stretch a year ago with Stewart.
Ernie Els must have figured it out in his 1994 and 1997 victories,
though he said the other day at Westchester Country Club, site
of the Buick Classic, “To be honest with you, I wouldn't
be able to tell you how I won those. I was just playing and surviving.”
Vijay Singh? His newly repaired vision could help him see his
way to this title, especially after he tied Woods at Pinehurst
for third, then won the Masters.
Jesper Parnevik? A guy who'll wear pink pants ought to be able
to stand out in the crowd, and he's having his best year.
David Duval? He might have learned a lesson from the Open book
with an overaggressive splash at Augusta National this spring.
Then again, those mock turtlenecks Duval has sported can feel
rather tight. When someone began to ask him last week how he felt
about being one of the best players in the world never to have
won a major, Duval cut him off with, “That's old news. Heard
that a year and a half ago.”
And could hear it again, along with Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie,
who was sitting pretty at Pebble Beach eight years ago until Tom
Kite achieved the required score — even-par 72 — under
brutal afternoon conditions.
A par of 72 is unattainable at this Open, because the eight years
have been somewhat unkind to Pebble Beach. The pitch pine canker
has taken many of the Monterey pines, including the strategic
ones that protected the second green. And by USGA standards (not
those of the birdie-happy PGA Tour, which governs the non-majors),
any hole where players consistently try to reach the green in
two shots must be a par-4.
So, at 484 yards, No. 2 joins the 466-yard ocean-side ninth as
the fierce long holes on a course that is not renowned for its
length but for its small, fast greens and nature's large part
in the degree of difficulty on the likes of the 331-yard par-4
fourth, the 106-yard par-3 seventh and especially near the end,
the 208-yard par-3 17th. Par for the course will be 71.
Surely Woods, dominating the tour this season (four wins, nine
top 10s in 10 tournaments) like no one since his hero Nicklaus,
will win the Open someday.
“I know I have the game,” he said. “I have the
mind for it. It's just a matter of time.”
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)
|
