Great ones don't just win, they punish
By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - The great ones don't just win, they punish.
Tiger Woods took care of the second part Saturday. Only the passage
of another 24 hours kept him from accomplishing the first.
The kid is going to be doing this for - what, another 20 years
or so? - so long as his head and heart are still in this maddening
game by then. But even now, there are only one or two guys on
the Tour that Tiger has to fear any given week. Among other things,
the third round at Augusta National proved that Colin Montgomerie
is not one.
Every drama, though, needs a villain. And credit the dour,
doughy Scot with this much: He talked the talk. When Montgomerie
learned Friday that he was playing with Woods in the last group,
he talked bravely about having much more experience and being
under much less pressure.
Off the first tee, he outdrove Woods and when he reached his
ball a few yards farther up the fairway, he turned to the gallery
on his right and cracked, "Take a picture."
Obviously, he hadn't seen the Nike commercials. Because when
it was time to walk the walk, Montgomerie shot 74. ("I am
Tiger") Woods shot 65.
So much for gamesmanship.
"Monty and I talked a little bit," Woods said. "I
enjoyed his company."
Montgomerie felt the same way - so long as he was in the mood
for a clinic.
"All I have to say is one brief comment," he said.
"There is no chance - we're all human beings here - no chance
humanly possible that Tigers Woods is going to lose this tournament.
No way!"
Woods takes a nine-stroke lead, the largest ever at the Masters,
into Sunday's final round. His patsy - oops, make that playing
partner - will be Costantino Rocca. Given those circumstances,
Montgomerie was asked whether he could envision a scenario anything
like last year, when Greg Norman, under relentless pressure from
Nick Faldo in the final round, coughed up a 6-stroke lead.
"No, this is different," he said, "This is very
different. Faldo is not lying second for a start. And Greg Norman
is not Tiger Woods."
People tried things to unsettle the kid before. Clearly, weighing
him down with expectations isn't going to be enough. After the
way Woods has been tearing up this hallowed piece of ground in
his debut as a pro, it looks like the job will fall to golf course
architects not yet born.
"Change this course?" Woods repeated a question put
to him at one point. "I like it just the way it is."
No doubt.
Woods shot 40 on the front nine of his opening round. His nine-hole
scores since have been 30-34-32-32-33. His average driving distance
at Augusta is 329 yards. Small wonder he is 10-under on the par-5
holes and hasn't had to lay up attacking a single one. The longest
club he has hit into any of the par-4s is a 7-iron.
But length is not all of it. Remember, his nerves are only
21, too. He made successful up-and-downs at three holes with chip
shots so delicate he might as well having been hitting eggs as
golf balls. He made short putts to save pars and long ones to
cash in birdies and walked behind each one before it dropped,
like the outcome was never in doubt.
Then he punctuated the entire thing with a sand wedge into
No. 18 that landed in the collar of rough ringing the green and
had so much backspin - swoosh! - it was sucked back onto the green
and within a foot of the flag.
Woods is threatening to make tournament golf resemble the country
club variety - except that he would be the only player to qualify
for the "A" flight. The parade of players who preceded
him into the interview room this day conceded as much.
But he wouldn't.
"If it's a 54-hole tournament, it's over," Woods
said.
Knowing it wasn't, he was eager to change subjects. His questioners
wouldn't go along. He said his preparation for Sunday would be
the same as it was the night before: a burger and fries, some
pingpong, some video games, then the untroubled sleep of a 21-year-old.
But don't be lulled into believing Woods doesn't appreciate
the significance of what lies ahead of him. Tuesday marks the
50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line
in baseball. He wants to win here, at what was once golf's most
exclusive club, not so much to punish golf as to open it up to
people the game once left behind.
"In my estimation, it opens a lot of doors ... and draws
lot of people into golf who never thought of playing the game.
I think on this kind of stage, with this kind of media, it would
do a lot for the game as far as minority golf is concerned."
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