Woods takes on history at Masters
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- A sense of history hovers over the Masters,
almost as if the breezes caressing the towering Georgia pines
carry the spirit of Bobby Jones and the memory of Ben Hogan.
And if that warm Southern wind whispers the names of Jones
and Hogan, the voices of the tens of thousands of fans covering
the hills of Augusta National Golf Club scream the name of Tiger
Woods.
Even Augusta National members, the calm men in green jackets,
were swept up in the anticipation over how Woods will follow last
year's startling victory.
"I think it's fair to say we don't get excited,"
Augusta National chairman Jack Stephens said on Wednesday when
questioned about whether the tournament committee considered drastic
changes to the course after Woods shot a record 18 under par last
year and won by a record 12 strokes.
But asked what Augusta officials would do if Woods broke the
record again this year, Stephens said deliberately but without
hesitation: "I suppose we anoint him."
Woods was almost anointed -- prematurely -- 12 months ago when
he became the youngest of the 61 Masters champions. But if there
is one thing the men in the green jackets know it's that greatness
is not measured by one performance.
"The record was broke after 32 years, and then only by
one shot," Stephens said of Woods' 270 total, eclipsing the
271 by Jack Nicklaus in 1965 and matched by Raymond Floyd in 1976.
"I've never seen so much excitement as we had in the clubhouse
last year," Stephens said. "When he made that putt on
18 to break the record that clubhouse exploded."
Then Stephens, in just about the biggest understatement to
come out of a very understated man, said: "Last year was
an unusual year."
If last year was unusual, this year is unreal.
"A lot of us are interested to see what happens,"
PGA Championship winner Davis Love III said. "After all the
talk, what will Tiger Woods do? Can he prove it playing under
all of this."
His Masters victory was like an alarm clock going off next
to the heads of the best players in the world.
Since the first weekend of July, Woods has been winless on
the PGA Tour. During that stretch, Ernie Els has emerged as a
legitimate challenger for the title of world's best golfer.
A slew of other players, including Love, Justin Leonard, David
Duval, Jim Furyk and Lee Westwood have kicked their games into
higher gear.
Asked if the outcome of the Masters was a foregone conclusion
and whether the other 87 players were competing for second-place
money, Love stared long and hard at the questioner, then snapped:
"I'm not even going to answer that."
Love's response was merely one reflection of the new level
of intensity many players have one year after Woods stole the
show.
If Woods wants to prove his performance was no fluke, a bunch
of other players seek to prove that pro golf is not merely Woods
against everyone else.
Throw in Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Tom Lehman, Phil Mickelson,
Colin Montgomerie and John Daly among those with something to
prove and Woods will have all the competition he can handle when
the tournament begins Thursday.
Woods was near-perfect last year in making 21 birdies, two
eagles and only seven bogeys, never once having a three-putt green
in 72 holes. But near-perfection is a state rarely maintained
for long in golf.
Tom Watson, a two-time winner at the Masters, knows how easily
things can unravel at Augusta. He points to a 10-foot putt Woods
made on No. 14 on Saturday last year.
"His putt looked like it was going so hard when it hit
the hole," Watson said. "If he had missed the putt it
would have been terrible. All you need to do is miss one of those
things and have a return putt and you start getting a little gun-shy
on these greens."
Confidence can disappear that quickly at Augusta.
Watson searched for words to explain the allure of the Masters.
"The tournament started on a great note because of Bobby
Jones," he said. "Then you have to add to that all those
who have won the tournament, from the Nicklauses and the Palmers
to the Demarets and the Sneads and the Hogans and the Nelsons,"
Watson said. "They are the masters of the game."
Another part of the allure is that the Masters is the only
one of the four major championships played on the same course
every year.
"The golfing public and the nongolfing public alike understand
when they talk about the 15th hole at Augusta and how the ball
comes off the green back into the water," Watson said. "There's
a familiarity with the Masters."
Familiarity, the saying goes, breeds contempt. At Augusta,
it breeds respect. If Woods can match what he did at the familiar
old course last year, those tall pines that whisper Jones and
Hogan can start to learn to pronounce Woods.
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