Tiger Woods not on his Masters pace
By Bob Spear / Knight Ridder Newspapers
AUGUSTA, Ga. ---- Tiger Woods made the game look so easy a
year ago in his one-sided triumph in the Masters. Now, he is struggling
and enters Sunday's final round five strokes and nine players
from the lead.
Discouraged? Distraught? Disgusted?
"I haven't lost anything yet," he said in his refusal
to concede after his even-par 72-215 Saturday. "I'm pretty
confident on this golf course. If you can get (momentum) going,
you can shoot a good round."
That, naturally, is his plan. And don't count him out, says
Jack Nicklaus, another golfer at 215 with designs on the championship.
"I've got to make some birdies," Woods said. "I
haven't all week. The wind gave everyone problems the first two
days. Today, I had a very difficult round for me."
His 72 Saturday pales by comparison to most of the 45 others
who made the cut, but "I think it is one of the best 72s
I have ever shot. Totally. It could have been much worse. I had
to make some great two-putts" after leaving his appraoch
shot on the wrong side of the green.
He soared four over par after six holes, thanks to his first
three-putt green at Augusta National since his amateur days and
a wayward iron game. "I was short, I was right, I was left,
I was long," he said. "I put the ball in sand traps,
I put it on the wrong shelf (level on the green), I did a lot
of things wrong" including converting a chip 8 feet from
the hole on No. 6 into a 30-foot pitch shot back to the cup en
route to double-bogey.
"I felt pretty good," he said. "I just didn't
execute my shots. They just didn't come off the way I tried; I
just couldn't get comfortable over the ball. But I'm not that
far off." He paused to let his works sink in and perhaps
to send a message: "I'm not that far off."
Woods called an 8-under-par 64, one stroke off the course record,
"definitely possible" and dipped into the history book.
"Jack shot 65 on Sunday in 1986 with two bogeys."
That, of course, is the year Nicklaus won his sixth green coat
with a final-round charge. "I want to get some momentum going
and keep in going," Wood said. "I know I have to be
patient; on some pins, I will have to take par and move on. But
if I can get going. . . . " He left the sentence dangling.
The defending champion recovered from his dismal start with
birdies at the eighth and ninth holes. He bogeyed 10 and birdied
12 before facing the moment of decision. His tee shot on 13 disappeared
into the trees on the right side of the fairway, and the ball
came to rest on a bed of pine needles.
"I was 2 over (par) for the day and one over for the tournament,"
he said. "The lead was 5 under then, and I knew I had to
get something going."
He played off the slippery lie and smashed a 4 iron 225 yards
to the green, setting up birdie. "It came off perfectly,"
he said.
Woods needs more of the same today in order to successfully
defend his title. Passing nine players in one round is a daunting
challenge.
"It can be done," Woods said, and his confidence
left no doubt about which player he thought could pull off the
miracle rally.
---
(c) 1998, The State (Columbia, S.C.).
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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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