That gulp is the sound of Woods swallowing
after first round of Open
By Bill Lyon / Knight-Ridder Newspapers
BETHESDA, Md. - As it has a habit of doing from time to time,
golf reminded us again Thursay just how fiendishly cruel and maddeningly
difficult it really is.
Golf did this by publicly embarrassing the best player on the
planet.
Yes, that was Tiger Woods hitting the ball sideways.
Yes, that was Tiger Woods drowning his tee ball on the 18th.
Yes, that was Tiger Woods making double bogey. Twice.
Yes, that was Tiger Woods buried so deep in the rough that
the club was ripped from his grip and his follow-through was a
one-armed, wounded bird flapper.
Yes, that was Tiger Woods with the Dead Man Walking eyes.
The U.S. Open is only one round old, but already Tiger Woods
is 9 shots out of the lead.
This is what just one day at the Open can do to you. The immediate
concern now is not the Grand Slam, it is whether he can make the
cut.
It was a glorious day for humiliation. And in many respects,
the public agony of Tiger Woods was the best thing that could
have happened.
It gives us a chance to see how he reacts to his first bombs-bursting
failure, to see if he has the bounce-back in him that we suspect.
And it is good for golf, because it underscores golf's standing
as the most unconquerable of all our games.
There was something perversely reassuring in what befell Tiger
Woods. It reminded us that, at his peak, even Jack Nicklaus could
win only 20 percent of the tournaments he entered, even he was
not immune to the torment golf can inflict.
In truth, "El Tigre" did not handle himself as well
as he might have afterward. He stiffed the media, stalked away
from the course, steam hissing from his ears, and later let an
antiseptic statement, undoubtedly prepared by a flunky, speak
for him.
His anger is perfectly understandable, and if he wanted a cool-down
time, that would have been fine, too.
But even after staggering through a round in the the 80s, Palmer
and Nicklaus always stayed to replay it. It is a responsibility
that goes with the crown.
Tom Lehman graciously suggested that we make allowances for
Tiger's unique situation, and he has a point. But only up to a
point. Tiger's debt goes beyond swinging a club.
Assuming that All-Tiger, All The Time is going to be with us
for the next couple of decades, what we need for young Master
Woods is a rival. Someone to stand up to him. Someone to help
define him. Someone to bring out the best in him.
Someone to play Joe Frazier to his Muhammad Ali.
And now we have a volunteer.
Colin Montgomerie.
He is a frumpy, rumpled Scot. Somewhere between Bill Parcells
and Mrs. Doubtfire. The Pillsbury Dough Boy with a 3-wood.
But he is so straight with a golf ball it's as though he uses
a ruler to drive and a straight edge for his approach shots. And,
best of all, it looks as if he has some vinegar in him.
He had the torch put to him by Tiger in the Masters just eight
weeks ago, and yet, resiliently, here he is back for more. Paired
with Woods in the third round at Augusta, Monty was thrashed by
9 strokes. Thursday, in the first round of the U.S. Open, playing
two hours ahead of Woods, he effected a rather staggering 18-shot
reversal of that humiliation.
Montgomerie was shooting a tidy little 65, which is a 7-under-par
anywhere else but is only 5-under at Congressional, while Woods
was slopping it around in 4-over 74.
Woods' round was erratic and certainly anticlimactic. He missed
too many fairways and too many greens, and every time he tried
to get aggressive, it worked against him.
So the Grand Slam just got a little more implausible. Not that
Woods is entirely out of it after one round. But that slow start
puts him in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position. He is now
dependent upon the generosity of strangers.
The nature of the Open is that it is difficult to make up lost
ground; rather, you wait for the leaders to back up. Almost invariably,
they do.
Montgomerie's confidence is running high. And now he has a
cushion of sorts, in that he didn't begin in debt, so he doesn't
have to press. At the Open, when you force birdie, you usually
get bogey.
Montgomerie was left for dead by Woods at Augusta, or so we
thought. But Monty has rebounded, and he says that the Open is
his very favorite tournament, a statement that will surely get
him pilloried back home, where the only true Open is the British
Open.
Montgomerie only missed one fairway Thursday and never used
his driver. If he can repeat that uncanny accuracy for three more
rounds, the Open is his, and good for him.
But it is all but guaranteed that he cannot continue avoiding
the rough. It is the nature of man, and the nature of the Open.
"I know that you never win a tournament the first two
days," he said. "You can only lose it."
That gulp is the sound of Tiger Woods swallowing.
(Bill Lyon is a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Write to him at: The Philadelphia Inquirer, 400 North Broad Street,
Philadelphia, Pa. 19130.)
(c) 1997, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site,
at http://www.phillynews.com/
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