Wednesday, October 18, 2000
Woods reveals his two favorite shots in
his amazing run
By John Reger
The Orange County Register
(KRT)
Even though I've heard it twice now, I still don't believe it,
though after having him explain it to me recently I understand
it more than I did.
In this almost perfect season for Tiger Woods, 24, the former
Cypress, Calif., resident claims he has only hit two perfect shots.
Three of four majors, nine PGA Tour victories and only two perfect
shots! Come on, who are you kidding? The funniest thing is the
two perfect shots Woods describes are not the ones I guessed.
I assumed the shots were made at Pebble Beach Golf Course, one
during the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the other during the
U.S. Open.
The one during the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was a wedge Woods
hit on the 15th green that he holed out for eagle.
The shot tracked the flag like a laser and landed 4 feet to the
right, spinning back into the hole.
It allowed Woods to catch leader Matt Gogel and eventually win
the tournament, keeping his consecutive victory streak alive at
six.
The second shot was one of legend. Woods was romping the field
in the U.S. Open and on the No. 6 hole found the rough on the
right side of the fairway. Rather than pitch out on the par-5
and play it as a three-shot hole, Woods took a 7-iron from more
than 200 yards and hit as hard a shot as I have seen. The ball
flew out of the rough and tracked toward the green, landing about
20 feet away. Woods 2-putted for birdie.
There were other shots I thought Woods would consider perfect,
but they didn't make the list, either.
There was the 175-yard 8-iron out of the sand over the water onto
a small green at the Canadian Open, or the shot he hit in the
dark at the NEC Invitational and stuck to within a foot.
None of those made the list. Woods instead picked two rather bland,
nondescript shots, saying they were the perfect ones.
One was at Pebble Beach during the U.S. Open, an innocuous 6-iron
he hit on the No. 8 hole. The ball didn't rattle the cup, or stick
to within a foot, it came to rest about 9 feet from the hole,
but it was the way he hit it.
It was the same feeling Woods had when he got to the 14th hole
Sunday at the British Open. Woods was ahead by a comfortable margin,
as David Duval was stumbling and had an approach shot into the
par-5 14th hole at St. Andrews.
“Stevie (Williams, his caddie) picked out this crane, pin
was on the back left, crane in the distance and wind coming about
five miles an hour off the left,” Woods said. “In order
to get there, I am going to have to draw it up against the wind
and let it ride. I hit this shot and this ball hit right on the
crane and held against that wind the entire way and I handed the
club in the air to Steve and the ball landed right at the base
of the crane, never left the crane. One of the most amazing feelings
I've ever had in golf. That is why we play. That one shot brings
us back. It is so hard to repeat, it really is.”
It might sound like arrogance that the best player in the game
right now is saying he only had two perfect shots, but it's not.
“It's like what (Ben) Hogan said, the best week he ever had,
four perfect shots in a tournament,” Woods said. “That's
the best week he's ever had in his life. When you get to a high
level you start to realizing what it feels like to hit that one
perfect shot, where your whole body and mind and everything comes
together, you don't feel a thing. You don't have to adjust anything,
everything is there. The ball goes up and does absolutely, exactly
what you want to the inch. It's the wildest thing you've ever
seen.”
It is a feeling Woods is trying to repeat as much as possible
but, as other golfers who are trying to break 80, is having a
hard time doing.
“There are little things that you find in this game, anyone
who plays we're addicted to trying to get better,” Woods
said. “Whether it is buying new equipment because it is going
to go further and straighter, it's going to spin faster or get
in the hole quicker, we are always looking for that new edge.”
(c) 2000, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).
Visit the Register on the World Wide Web at http://www.ocregister.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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