Thursday, February 8, 2001
Only media seem concerned about Tiger's
'slump'
BRIAN MURPHY
San Francisco Chronicle
LA JOLLA, Calif. — We could, in theory, turn this into a
death watch. We could, in theory, gather every week at a golf
tournament — pick your backdrop: the desert of Arizona, the
cypress-dotted Monterey Peninsula, the bluffs of San Diego surround
Tiger Woods, and ask in unison: Will you ever win again?
It is getting that way. Woods was stalked again by the golfwriting
world this week at Torrey Pines, site of the Buick Invitational
which begins Thursday.
He was asked what was wrong. He was asked why he hasn't won a
PGA Tour event in his past six starts. He was asked about missed
putts and about ifs-ands-or-buts.
His fellow pros, playing practice rounds in the unexpectedly bracing
winds, could only chuckle at the spectacle. It is, after all,
kind of hard to win every week on the tour.
“You don't have to explain that to me,” said Kirk Triplett,
a 16-year pro with only the 2000 Nissan L.A. Open in his trophy
case. “I'm a guy who's won once in 300 tries.”
Said Brad Faxon of Woods: “A tremendous slump.”
For the record, death-watchers, Faxon was joking. But the topic
is as hard to ignore as the teeming masses who follow Woods each
week over hill and dale at the world's finest courses.
Consider a year ago. Woods entered the Buick Invitational having
won six consecutive tour starts, the first player to do so since
Ben Hogan in 1948. Not even Jack Nicklaus won more than three
in a row. We were conditioned, expecting constant, silly greatness.
He starts at Torrey Pines having not won in six consecutive starts
to form a twisted symmetry.
Question: Is it legitimate to ask what is wrong when, maybe, not
too much is wrong? When, maybe, putts aren't falling and Woods
is still swinging well? When, maybe, a sprained knee sustained
last week is inhibiting his game?
Woods' worst finish since August was the 13th-place tie at Pebble
Beach last week. Prior, he'd finished top10 in eight previous
starts, a record for which most golfers would sell their caddies
to a pawn shop.
“I guess that's terrible (golf) isn't it,” Woods said
sarcastically. Don't think Woods isn't counting, isn't burning.
He maintains his victory with David Duval at the World Cup in
Argentina (a non-tour event) last November is legit, and consistently
disputes scribes who use the tour event numbers.
“Three starts,” he said. “That's not a slump, not
like some of you people think it is. It's just three tournaments.
If I can go three tournaments, and people call it a slump, that
means I've played some pretty good golf. “It's not a bad
thing. It's not like I'm missing cuts. I'm right there.”
Numbers can illuminate. Woods' streak of 62 consecutive cuts made
is best on tour. More currently, Woods is top-10 in greens in
regulation in 2001. All great stuff. He is, however, ranked 129th
in putts. Ouch. “My putting's great,” Woods said. “They're
just lipping out.”
It's a case of what NBC analyst Johnny Miller calls “lipitis.”
Of course, Miller also said on KNBR this week he heard rumors
that Woods is set to get married soon and joked about impending
nuptials affecting Woods' play.
Marriage? Only Woods' hairdresser knows for sure.
Perhaps a raucous stag party might be tonic for whatever ails
the world's top-ranked player.
But maybe the problem lies in unrealistic expectations, and a
golf world that wants so dearly for Woods, the anointed one, to
fulfill his date with history, forgetting all the while that history
takes a long time to make. In a world of remote control-driven
attention spans, maybe the arc of Woods' career needs an outdated
commodity patience.
“It is humorous, my goodness,” said Spainard Jose Maria
Olazabal. “Give the guy a break. Six tournaments? That's
nothing.”
All this talk might be so much divot-filler come April, when Woods
takes aim at The Masters and a fourth consecutive Grand Slam title.
Though Woods maintains “my drive is the same,” he could
be evolving into a player who focuses his best play for the majors,
leaving the Buick Invitationals of the world to all the second-guessers
and death-watchers. Like us.
“I know that I just like to peak four times a year,”
Woods said. “That's what I'm trying to get ready for. If
I could just peak at the right weeks, I'd be pretty happy.”
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)
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