Woods shows he's human in Open
By Mark Purdy
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
BETHESDA, Md. - Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the new Nike
slogan: I'm Tiger Woods. And I'm mad and don't want to talk about
it.
As expected, nothing mattered Thursday at the U.S. Open until
this year's most popular sports theme park ride, Tiger Woods,
teed off on the first hole. And, five hours later, nothing mattered
as much as how teed off Tiger Woods was after his last hole. He
bounced a 7-iron shot into the water at No. 18, taking a double
bogey that might have cost him a chance to compete for the Open
title Sunday.
After his last putt, Woods stalked off the course, refusing
to be interviewed by waiting reporters and ignoring the kids seeking
his autograph. He went into the players' locker room, quickly
retrieved a Sony Discman player from his locker and strode speechlessly
to the parking lot and his courtesy car.
Gently approached by a designated pool reporter, Woods initially
ignored any questions before ripping off his Discman and throwing
it angrily into the car. Then he agreed to answer a few questions,
which appeared on a quote sheet handed out in the press tent.
The best quote: "I didn't play well down the stretch.
And obviously, it cost me."
Asked what was on his mind after the final hole, he said: "You
don't want to know."
Well, yes, we did. No one expected Woods to be Mr. Happy-Go-Five-Iron
and do a peppy interview. He is 4 over par and in 79th place,
and only 60 players make tonight's 36-hole cut. But there have
been many cases in which Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman have been
in similar situations and shown more gracious frustration.
Same goes for the minority golfers Woods has cited as role
models for himself: Lee Elder and Charlie Sifford. They recognize
that it makes them seem more human to talk about their failures.
But forget about us slimeball sportswriters. It is the volunteers
working on the Congressional Country Club premises who were the
most slack-jawed at Woods' disagreeable behavior Thursday when
he stomped through the clubhouse.
Plainly, this was not the happiest afternoon in the life of
young Mr. Woods, which was a rotten shame. After his performance
at the Masters two months ago, the whole world was eager to see
what would happen at the next major tournament. And the U.S. Open
was waiting to embrace and cheer him from the first shot. Unlike
the Masters, which practically invented golf elitism, the Open
always has been the people's tournament. There are no entrance
restrictions and a more raucous blue-collar feel in the gallery.
No accident, this. The Open takes pride in being an all-comers
event, first bringing to fame such diverse champions and contenders
as Lee Trevino, Jim Dent and Isao Aoki. Woods has brought that
diverse feeling to a new level, of course, with his multi-ethnic
"Cablinasian" background. Thursday, the gallery was
full of new golf fans ("Isn't he allowed to pick up the ball
out of there?" asked one woman when a member of Woods' threesome
hit into deep rough) and the crush so great that a spectator fainted
from heat along the seventh fairway.
However, Tiger's day went sour from the start. At the Masters,
he did not take three putts on a green all week. He did it twice
Thursday in the first five holes. Fortunately, he also made three
birdies on the front nine to hold the fort.
But it collapsed on the back nine, when the tight Open fairways
and higher rough took their toll.
Woods flew a chip shot across the green at No. 11, shanked
a shot at No. 15.
Then came the last very sad hole and the very wet water.
Tom Lehman, one of his playing partners, hit first and drew
the ball nicely toward the pin on the left side of the green.
Tiger tried to do the same.
"He was tempted and put too much English on it,"
said Steve Jones, the other threesome member." Sometimes
you just can't play at the pin. He did." Jones said the words
sympathetically, not joyously, which also follows a pattern.
Memo to Tiger: People want to love you. Believe it or not,
so do sportswriters. You seem like an intelligent, sensitive guy
who has managed to create your own roving Cablinasian embassy
on every golf course you play. So why make it so hard on yourself?
There is a quiet murmur among his fellow competitors, who wonder
the same thing. Woods recently refused to autograph a golf ball
for at least one fellow pro's charity auctions, giving no explanation.
And one day this week, John Daly sought to ease any remaining
tension between Woods and Fuzzy Zoeller by setting up a three-way
practice round. Woods agreed, then showed up at a different time
and played by himself. Zoeller said he wasn't upset because, well,
stuff happens. Besides, Fuzzy doesn't have much of a defense in
the human relations department.
It is tougher to explain why Woods hasn't been more eager to
re-connect with his former Stanford teammate, Joel Kribel - who
was by all accounts friendly with Woods on the Cardinal golf team.
"I've talked to him twice this week, on the (practice) putting
green," Kribel said. "We've only had two five-minute
conversations, mostly about school and how things used to be.
I understand. He's pretty busy. He's so famous, he can't even
go out to dinner anymore."
Yes, but was Kribel disappointed he wasn't asked to play even
one practice round with Woods during the three days before the
tournament?
"A little bit," Kribel said. "But I realized
how he was trying to get out here early by himself and avoid the
mess and all the people. I don't blame him at all."
No one does. Everyone seems to understand that Woods is 21
and still learning, still entitled to make mistakes. But the worry
is, his handlers from Nike and the International Management Group
(IMG) are catering to the worst instincts of a 21-year-old instead
of developing his best instincts.
In truth, Thursday was no real disaster for Woods, on the course
or off. People still want to love him. His golf game is still
a marvel. But when you're making millions of dollars like an adult
professional athlete, it is very fair to expect multi-million-dollar
adult behavior. Unless that's what Thursday was. And that is an
even sadder thought.
Write Mark Purdy at 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose 95190;
call (408) 920-5092; fax (408) 920-5244; or e-mail Mpurdy(at)sjmercury.com
(c) 1997, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury
News, at http://www.sjmercury.com/
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