Payback time at Augusta
By Bob Gillepsie / Knight Ridder Newspapers
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Late Monday afternoon, Tiger Woods arrived
at Augusta National Golf Club and went out to play a quick nine
holes. Naturally, about 1,000 Masters golf fans went with him.
At No. 6, a devilish 180-yard par-3, Woods missed the green.
As he stood over his next shot, one bold fellow in the gallery
said loudly, "Betcha $10 you don't chip it in." Whereupon
Woods did just that.
Then, grin on his face, he walked over to the fan, hand extended.
"He gave me a twenty. I gave him two fives back," Woods
says.
Moral of this story: Don't bet against Tiger Woods. Not at
Augusta National. Not at The Masters.
Which is what I'm about to do.
A year ago, Tiger was a sucker bet. With his prodigious length
off the tee, he ran away and hid from the rest of the field. Augusta
has always favored long hitters, and Woods was the ultimate in
long.
But that, says runner-up (by 12 shots) Tom Kite, is not why
Tiger won. "He won because he had no three-putts (all week).
He won because he never missed a putt inside 10 feet.
"To not miss a putt inside 10 feet (at Augusta),"
Kite says, "is incredible. It's phenomenal."
Can Woods do that again?
No less than Jack Nicklaus says it doesn't matter. "His
normal game is superior on this golf course," the only six-time
Masters winner says. "His length, his elevation, his fabulous
short game ... I'll be very surprised if he doesn't win."
Jack, I've got $10 says you're wrong. Here's why.
Putt for dough. After the Masters, Tiger won twice more last
year on the PGA Tour. Then the victory parade halted. This year,
Woods was runner-up in the Mercedes Championship and the Nissan
Open, but since he's finished ninth, 13th and, at The Players
Championship, 35th.
Moreover, he hasn't broken par in his last six rounds, hasn't
shot better than 70 since the first round at Bay Hill. And his
last three Sundays, he's turned in closing scores of 73, 77 and
72.
He still leads the PGA Tour in scoring average (69.81). But
this year, Woods has been in contention five times going into
the final round. Each time, someone else won.
"Overall, I'm playing better," Woods says. "My
last six rounds have been over par or even, but I've been really
close to playing great golf. So yeah, you can say I'm struggling,
but I'm not."
So what's going on?
First of all, Tiger's putting, which ranges from decent to
indifferent (he ranked 60th on the Tour last year), hasn't come
close to last year's Masters form. He's ranked 95th so far this
year, and those who have seen him this year say his putting is
why he hasn't won.
Another reason Woods won't repeat: if it were that easy, more
golfers would've done it. In 61 previous tournaments, only two
men have put together back-to-back Masters titles. Jack Nicklaus
did it in 1965-66; Nick Faldo in 1989-90. The reason? All the
pressure, all the demands on his time, that a defending champion
must handle.
Too, when you're the champion, you're the target. The rest
gear their games around beating you; you're their inspiration.
In 1964, the year after Nicklaus won his first Masters, the
Golden Bear actually scored four shots better than in 1963. And
he finished second to Arnold Palmer by six shots.
Tiger, play safe? But the best reason Woods won't repeat has
to do with how he won last year, how he's always won, dating back
to his amateur days. By going all-out, playing "extreme golf."
Augusta National fits his game, and Woods took full advantage
last year, freewheeling with his driver and leaving the field
in his dust. It so happened that every other phase of Woods' game
was also Grade A during his final 63 holes, hence his domination.
But what if something's missing? Not just his putting; what
if, for much of the week, his drives are like they were during
last year's first nine holes, when Tiger scrambled to shoot 40?
Will he have the savvy to gear back, grind out pars, be patient?
We saw little evidence of that in last year's other three majors,
where he failed to make the top 15.
"If you look at the way I've played my whole career, that's
what I've done," Woods says of his aggressive style. "(But)
out here, it's different. Pins are harder, you don't get up and
down. That's the lesson I've learned ... getting pars and moving
on."
Augusta National, though, lulls Woods into a sense of security
with its open spaces and lack of rough. His greatest strengths
thus could be his Achilles heel, because placid as it looks, the
fabled course has teeth.
Before last year, Woods had never broken par in the Masters.
This year, I think he'll learn what Nicklaus and other winners
here know: you might beat Augusta National on occasion, but over
time, the course will win.
And if Tiger's got change for a $20, I'll bet, this year, he
won't.
X X X
(Bob Gillespie is a sports columnist for The State in Columbia,
S.C. Write to him at: The State, P.O. Box 1333, Columbia, S.C.,
29202.)
(c) 1998, The State (Columbia, S.C.).
Visit CyberState at http://www.thestate.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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