Tiger had more than just length in annihilating
Augusta
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Sports Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Tiger Woods found himself in a rare position
Sunday. He had already played two shots on No. 8, a par 5 measuring
535 yards, and he still couldn't see the hole.
Just as surprising was that the pin was still in the cup.
Woods, who won the Masters by shooting a record 18-under 270
for an unprecedented 12-stroke victory, could have won the tournament
on the par 5s alone.
"He manhandled the par 5s this week," said runnerup
Tom Kite. "The ball is going so far now. The club is so light,
the players are big and strong. Everybody is putting themselves
in a position to take advantage of the par 5s.
"But his position is far greater than everybody else's."
Woods played them in 13 under for the week. On all but three
of the 16 par 5s, he was either putting or chipping from just
off the green for an eagle.
This is why Jack Nicklaus said Woods was capable of winning
at least 10 green jackets, why Jesper Parnevik suggested that
Masters officials set up "Tiger tees" some 50 yards
back to keep him from winning 20 of them.
Asked how soon he thought he would win the Masters, Woods didn't
hesistate.
"I thought I could when I was 19," he said. "That's
when I came here."
But Woods didn't annihilate Augusta National on length alone.
When he turned the Masters into a runaway with a 7-under 65
on Saturday, he missed only one fairway and one green.
"In order to get to some of these pins, you've got to
be on certain sides of the fairway," Woods had said two days
before the tournament began.
He also shared another element that was even more telling about
his chances of becoming the youngest Masters champion.
"It does help to have local knowledge of a golf course,"
he said. "But when a guy gets his A-game and still has his
A-game, he's probably going to win."
Woods struggled to a 40 over the first nine holes, then played
the rest of the week in 22 under par.
"This golf course can take anybody who is confident and
humble them quickly," Woods said. "On the front nine
Thursday, I was just like anybody else. I played shaky, but I
also played patient.
"From there, it evolved into one of my best ball-striking
rounds, putting rounds and management skills I've ever put together."
When his accuracy did falter, Woods had so many other shots
in his bag to carry him along.
After bogeys on two of the previous three holes Sunday, Woods
hooked his approach on No. 8 into the woods, the ball settling
on a bed of pine needles with a head-high mound blocking his view
of the flagstick.
Colin Montgomerie, who melted under Woods' A-game in the third
round, was in the same spot on Saturday and took a bogey.
But Woods played a perfect bump up the slope with an 8-iron,
the ball trickling onto the green with near perfect speed and
stopping four feet from the hole.
Another par 5, another birdie.
Woods was not perfect Sunday, although even a repeat of the
biggest collapse in Masters history - Ken Venturi shot an 80 in
the final round in 1956 to lose by one - would not have mattered.
He made his first bogey in 37 holes when he hit his approach
into the bunker at No. 5 and couldn't save par. He took another
bogey at No. 7 when he hooked his ball into the Georgia pines
and could only run his approach into a greenside bunker, where
he again failed to get up and down for par.
Woods showed the completeness of his game at No. 8 with a birdie
that seemed to settle him down and allow him to chase history
at Augusta with little resistance.
"It's nice when you have a par 5 after you're 1 over to
get it right back, and I did," Woods said. "And I still
had two more (par 5s) on the back. That was my thought - if I
drive the ball well, there should be two more birdies."
Woods' length cannot be dismissed, especially at Augusta.
No one, not even John Daly, has had as much ease on the par
5s as Woods had this week. He hit a 9-iron for his second shot
on the 555-yard second hole. At No. 13, when everyone else was
hitting driver, Woods hit 3-wood off the tee and at times had
only an 8-iron left.
"We're all going to have to become better at certain aspects
of our game because Lord knows, we can't hit it as far as he can,"
said Tommy Tolles.
Nicklaus remember those days. When he was winning three of
his six green jackets by the time he was 26, he recalls reaching
into his bag for 9-irons and wedges while the rest of the field
had 4- and 5-irons.
Nicklaus finished his 39th Masters as Woods was just beginning
his final round.
"He's out there playing another game on a golf course
he's going to own for a long time," Nicklaus said.
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