Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Woods' only competition is
himself
By PAUL FINEBAUM
Scripps Howard News Service
Politically correct or not, I found myself
rooting against Tiger Woods early Sunday morning.
Each time he hit a shot, I kept hoping it
would get lost in the high grass or take a detour toward St. Andrew's
Bay.
Hey, I respect the guy as one of the greatest
golfers of all time and clearly the foremost athlete in the world
today. But like every other sports fan, I get bored easily, and
another Sunday stroll for Tiger in the British Open was about
as exciting for me as watching the Steeldogs play their final
home game of the season this weekend.
So I pulled and pushed and cheered for David
Duval, whose personality ranks somewhere between Attilla the Hun
and Al Gore. I tried to will his putts into the cup. I tried to
help him with his shot selection on this goat hill better known
as St. Andrew's, the birthplace of golf and the most famous track
in the world.
And for a while, it seemed to work. Tiger's
lead, which began the day at 6 shots, slipped to 5, 4 and then
3. I called neighbors and headed downstairs to wake up my wife.
Finally, it was happening. Finally, someone
was going to stand up and steamroll Tiger. Someone was going to
end his dominance of the game and bring some competition back.
Golf was going to be worth watching again, that is, unless you
are a member of the Woods family.
However, it was all for naught, as they
say in merry old Scotland. The lead edged back to 4 shots and
then, at the 12th hole, a typically dreary St. Andrew's hole that
looked as if it had just been grazed by a flock of sheep and herd
of cattle, Duval stumbled and Tiger charged, and the lead was
back to 6.
Suddenly I grabbed my television remote
control and scrambled to the Sunday political shows to see if
Dubya had named a VP.
As they say in tennis, it was game, set
and match. As they say in golf, it was just another day at the
office for Tiger Woods.
Expecting David to beat Tiger was akin to
another David beating Goliath. Those kind of upsets, my friends,
don't happen very often. When I flipped back to see if anything
had changed, Duval was hacking his way in the bunker to a quadruple
bogey 8 at the Road Hole, reminding me of some of my own shots.
Why, oh, why did I think Tiger was going
to lose to a chump such as Duval, who is ranked way, way down
on the World Golf rankings at No. 2?
Of course, being ranked second behind Tiger
is like being ranked second behind Einstein when it comes to smarts
or second behind Ludwig van Beethoven when it comes to music.
There was no rolling over Beethoven on this day, and there was
no taming Tiger.
So at the age of 24, when most of us are
worried about paying the power bill to avoid sleeping without
air conditioning, or trying to find enough money to pay off college
loans or ordering water with lunch instead of iced tea to save
a few pennies, Woods has walked into the record books along with
Sarazen, Hogan, Player and Nicklaus as the only golfers to have
won all four major golf championships.
In translation, they are carving a new spot
on the Mount Rushmore of golf. That is the goal of every man who
ever sticks the wooden tee in the ground. Snead couldn't pull
it off. Neither could Nelson or Palmer, Trevino, Watson or Floyd.
But Tiger has done the trick. And he made
it look so easy.
Where he goes now in golf simply is a matter
of whether he can stay interested long enough. Perhaps he could
try to win the actual Grand Slam, capturing all four majors in
the same calendar year. That used to be considered the longest
shot in golf.
Well, considering Tiger will be the favorite
in the next 100 majors, don't bet against it happening.
Tiger now has won three of the past four
major championships. By comparison, Greg Norman, easily the most
talented golfer between the end of Nicklaus' run in the mid-'80s
until the dawning of Tiger three years ago, has won two majors
for his career.
Tiger has done that since the last time
it rained more than two consecutive days in Birmingham.
Is he the greatest ever? Oh, I still think
he must negotiate Mr. Nicklaus' record for that. But if Tiger
wants to be the greatest of all time, it is within his grasp.
Now, as it was in Nicklaus' heyday, the
only competition Tiger will have is himself.
(Paul Finebaum writes for the Post-Herald
in Birmingham, Ala.)
Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address)
of This Story to A Friend:
|
