Tiger Woods has much to learn - and the time
to do it
By Bill Parrillo
Providence Journal-Bulletin
BETHESDA, Md. - All is right again in Tiger Woods's often-turbulent
world.
On Friday, the 21-year-old phenom went back to making birdies,
shot a three-under-par 67 and played his way back into the 97th
U.S. Open Championship.
Twenty-four hours earlier, people were wondering if he'd even
make the halfway cut after shooting an opening 74. Now they're
thinking Grand Slam again.
"I even thought about (not making the cut) myself,"
Woods said. "But I knew I had to get back to around even
par and the rest would take care of itself."
The rest is this. Woods (74-67 - 141) is one over par for the
tournament and trails the leader, Tom Lehman, by four shots with
36 holes to play. That gurgling sound you heard was a bunch of
tour veterans nervously clearing their throats.
Woods also is talking again.
When last seen, he had stomped off the Congressional Country
Club grounds after shooting his first-round 74. He said he didn't
talk to anybody. He didn't talk to his manager, he didn't talk
to his coach, he didn't even go to the practice tee.
He also refused an invitation to talk to the hundreds of media,
except to give a few curt replies to several questions.
"I went home," said Tiger. "It was business
as usual. I had some burgers and fries and watched television."
Which may be a whole new way of fixing your golf game. He came
back on Friday morning, birdied two of the first three holes and
shot a 67.
"I stuck with my guns," said Woods. "I did exactly
the same thing that I did on Thursday. I played the course actually
virtually identically. I didn't change any of the clubs off the
par-4s and par-5s. The only difference is, I hit more fairways
and better iron shots."
Friday's round, in fact, may turn out to be Woods's most important
of the summer. An exaggeration? Maybe not. A lot of people were
waiting for him to crash and burn, but he didn't. They were thinking
that Congressional just might be a little too tough, that it wasn't
the soft touch that Augusta National was.
But Woods hit a terrific 8-iron to within six feet on the first
hole, put a 5-iron shot to within 10 feet on the second, and lofted
a 6-iron to within eight feet on the third.
"I hit three good iron shots right in a row," said
Woods. "That's how you build momentum."
And, as usual, the crowds surged around him. They roared with
every bomb off the tee; they moaned and groaned with every miss
on the green.
"The fact that Tiger played so well got the crowd jump-started,"
said Tom Lehman, who was one of Woods's playing partners along
with defending champion Steve Jones. "They were really hootin'
and hollerin', but that was fine by me. I think it got us all
going."
A lot of people don't know what to make of Tiger Woods right
now. In a golfing sense, he is 21 going on 35. He can think his
way around the course with the best of them, and he has been groomed
to handle every kind of golf pressure. In golfing terms, he is
no rookie.
But there is another side to Tiger Woods. For someone who has
played so much, he reacts badly to adversity. There are times
when he looks positively distraught after missing a putt - a reaction,
if constant, that will take its toll.
And his refusal to speak publicly after a bad round - as he
did on Thursday - was immature, at best. He tried to explain it
on Friday.
"Why would you want to talk to a guy who was nine shots
back?" he asked. "Do you require Greg Norman or Steve
Elkington, who ended up 5 over, to come in? They don't require
that."
What Woods needs is a little history lesson. Someone has to
tell him about the time the great Arnold Palmer showed up to talk
about his embarrassing 80 at The Masters in one of his last rounds
there.
"Why shouldn't I show up?" said Palmer. "I was
always willing to take the good. I have to take the bad."
Jack Nicklaus was the same way after missing the cut in a major.
And who has known more heartbreak than Greg Norman, who has lost
Masters, U.S. Open and PGA titles because of spectacular shots
by someone else on the final hole?
Yet Norman has always been gracious enough to talk about it
publicly. Woods has to learn that. Clearly, his advisers at International
Management Group (IMG), who have marketed him to the tune of more
than $100 million, haven't explained it to him.
It goes beyond signing hats and golf balls. It's a matter of
common courtesy and class. Woods can be a charming young man,
and there's no denying his golfing talent or intelligence.
He's only 21 years old, which means he has a lot to learn.
He also has the time.
(Bill Parrillo is a sports columnist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin.
Write to him at: The Providence Journal-Bulletin, 75 Fountain
Street, Providence, R.I., 02902.)
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