Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Tiger makes a pitch for golf
in Olympics
By ROBERT MILLWARD
AP Sports Writer
LONDON (AP) — Tiger Woods got his hands
on something he hasn't won and probably never will.
Holding a golf clinic at London's Hyde Park
on Monday, Woods ran into British Olympic rowing champions Steven
Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.
“This is one thing that I've got that
Tiger doesn't,” Pinsent said as he pulled from his pocket
his gold medal from the Sydney Games. “Until golf's in the
Olympics you're not going to win one, so try this on for size.”
Cheered by 5,000 golf fans at the park,
Pinsent — who has won three golds to Redgrave's five in five
Olympics — hung his latest gold medal around Woods' neck.
“I would like to see golf in the Olympics,”
Woods said. “It would be exciting for all the fans who watch
golf.
“We have a World Golf Championship
now and it would be neat to see the game at the Olympics. It's
one of the oldest games and it's unfortunate that it's not an
Olympic event.”
Woods made his stopover as part of a promotion
for American Express and the Save the Children Fund. He tied for
fifth place behind Canada's Mike Weir at Valderrama in Spain on
Sunday. He now heads to Thailand for this week's Johnnie Walker
Classic.
On a makeshift driving range, he treated
the large crowd to his full array of shots off the tee as well
as his routine of juggling the ball on the clubface.
Organizers of the clinic built a small green
177 yards away for Woods to aim at.
“I hope this green is better than the
17th at Valderrama,” he said. Woods found the water three
out of four rounds at the 17th last week and did the same in last
year's final round.
Before the clinic, Woods said he did not
think U.S. tour golfers were weakening the sport worldwide by
staying home to earn the most money.
Most of the top Americans skipped the prestigious
World Match Play tournament at Wentworth, England, and a weaker
than usual U.S. team lost in the first round of the Dunhill Cup
at St. Andrews.
“I don't think it's just us,”
he said. “I think that everyone, whether in Europe or America
or around the world, we are all looking to make our financial
status a little bit better. I think it's human nature.”
On the driving range, Woods took questions
from fans. He was asked how he would follow up this season in
which he became the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win
three majors in one year.
“Every year I have played, I have looked
at the year and I can say I was better at the end of the year
than at the beginning,” said Woods, who won nine tournaments
this year.
So where did he go wrong this year?
“At the 17th at Valderrama,” he
said.
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