Tuesday, September 12, 2000
With Tiger, every week feels
like a major
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
Grant Waite has never contended in a major
championship.
It only felt that way.
The Canadian Open may be the third-oldest
national championship in golf, but it is nothing more than regular
PGA Tour event these days. Winning does not come with a five-year
exemption on tour or to the four majors. The pressure is not nearly
as suffocating.
Still, Glen Abbey Golf Club had that major
championship feeling Sunday, when Waite began the final round
tied for the lead with Tiger Woods and then matched him shot-for-shot
in a brilliantly played duel.
The difference was one stroke, and one shot
that was vintage Woods — a 6-iron from 218 yards out of a
bunker and over the water on the last hole that gave Woods his
27th victory worldwide and made Waite his 21st victim.
“It was a very enjoyable experience,”
Waite said. “That's about as tough as it's ever going to
get on the PGA Tour other than maybe a final round of a major.”
Part of that had to do with the thousands
of fans who stood four-deep down every fairway, part of the 50,000
people at Glen Abbey, the largest gallery in Canadian golf history.
Part of that had to do with whom he was
trying to beat.
The television ratings speak volumes. To
no one's surprise, ESPN reported Tuesday that its final-round
coverage of the Canadian Open drew the most viewers for a golf
tournament in the cable network's history, more than 2.7 million
homes.
Players also are aware that Woods has made
a huge impact where it really counts, with money from the four-year
television contract translating into record purses that have made
millionaires out of 33 players this year.
The most exciting aspect of Woods could
be found pressed against the ropes and packed into the knolls
overlooking tee boxes, fairways and greens.
Such was the case at Glen Abbey. And at
Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club for the Buick Open, which
Woods decided to play for the first time in two years. And even
last year at Disney World, where more and more people take time
away from Space Mountain to catch a glimpse of the young star
who is playing out of this world.
The size of the crowd has a marginal bearing
on prize money and even less of one on television ratings. But
it is no less a benefit to the players around him, who now have
an NFL-like theater in which to compete.
But there's also a downside.
Paul Azinger was getting ready to tee off
on the third hole Saturday, which is located in front of a path
where players — and marshals, and security, and media —
walk to the first tee. Davis Love III came by with a small throng,
which caused Azinger to stop his routine.
Then, he backed off again when he realized
who Love's partner was in the third round.
“Are you going to stop that big, bad
Tiger?” he jokingly asked no one in particular.
Azinger was at the last three non-majors
that Woods played and noticed the difference in the number of
those watching. He loved the size, as do the other players.
The manners worry him.
“It's changed so much from the late
'80s,” Azinger said. “They're much more verbal now.”
As Fulton Allem once said, etiquette is
not some city in France. But it is more and more lost on the new
faces coming to the game.
They used to scream “YOU DA MAN!”
after every shot. The latest ridiculous cry is “GET IN THE
HOLE!” It was heard at Firestone as soon as the ball was
on its way — not a 20-foot putt, but a 6-iron into a par
5.
Even Jack Nicklaus noticed the change when
he was paired with Woods for the first two rounds of the PGA Championship.
“He was kind of funny,” Woods
recalled. “Going down No. 1 on Friday, he says, “Is
it loud out here or what? I don't know why people yell so much.
Thank God I'm done playing. You've got to deal with this for the
rest of your career.'”
And so does everyone else playing with Woods.
Love was paired with Woods for the first
time since the final round at Bay Hill, before Woods won three
straight majors and his popularity soared even higher.
He couldn't help but notice the paparazzi
— outside the ropes, usually the disposal cameras —
and the excessive movement after Woods has hit or to get a better
view as someone else is playing.
“It's just watch Tiger, and it's just
a show,” Love said. “People are losing sight of the
fact that this is our job, and it's big for everybody, not just
for one guy. The more they are out here, the more they understand
every shot for every guy means something.”
Only then will golf have the best of both
worlds.
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