Woods threatens all records at the Masters
By RON SIRAK
AP Sports Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Conventional wisdom says the Masters starts
on the back nine on Sunday. This year, it ended on the front nine
on Saturday.
In fact, an entire era may have ended.
Sometime Sunday evening, when a 42-long green jacket is slipped
over Tiger Woods' sturdy shoulders, golf will take a change in
a direction never imagined when the Masters started 63 years ago.
A mere half-dozen years after Augusta National Golf Club let
in its first black member, it is poised to crown its first black
champion - the first black to win any of golf's four major professional
championships.
And in the 21-year-old Woods, golf is getting a champion with
talents perhaps unmatched in the history of the sport.
Beginning the third round with a three-stroke lead, Woods put
the rest of the field so far behind him - a record nine strokes
- that his only competition for the final round is the record
book and a bit of history.
"The only thing I want is a green jacket in my closet,"
Woods said when asked what he needed to shoot on Sunday to win.
"Whatever I have to do to win is fine."
Looking on with a sense of awe that they were seeing something
truly special, the enormous galleries following Woods swallowed
him in an embrace of cheers that rocked the rolling hills of Augusta
National.
By the time Woods spun a sand wedge back to a mere foot from
the hole on No. 18, he was being carried along by the kind of
roars reserved for Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus.
The performance Woods put on in the last 45 holes at Augusta
- since he started with a 40 on the front nine on Thursday - was
a startling glimpse into the future of the game.
Overwhelming the course with awesome length - he hit a 9-iron
for his second shot into the 555-yard second hole on Saturday
and has never had to hit more than a 7-iron into any par-4 all
week - Woods has played the last 45 holes 19 under par.
A 32 on the front nine and a 65 for the round put Woods at
15-under-par 201 after 54 holes, nine strokes ahead of Costantino
Rocca, 10 better than Paul Stankowski and 11 in front of Tom Kite
and Tom Watson.
Asked if he had a chance to win, Rocca said: "Maybe if
I play nine holes - and under par, too."
Was there a chance Woods could collapse in the final round
like Greg Norman did last year when he blew a six-stroke lead?
"No, this is different. This is very different,"
said Colin Montgomerie. "Faldo is not lying second for a
start, and Greg Norman is not Tiger Woods."
Asked his chances of winning, Stankowski said: "Tomorrow
there is no chance unless I shoot 57."
Woods' nine-stroke lead after 54 holes surpassed by one the
Masters record set by Raymond Floyd in 1976. He now can take aim
at the record nine-stroke victory margin of Jack Nicklaus in 1965
over Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
"He's a boy among men, and he's showing the men how to
play golf at Augusta National this week in the Masters,"
Watson said.
Woods can break the lowest score ever in the Masters, the 17-under-par
271 by Floyd in '76 and Nicklaus in '65. And he would be the youngest
Masters champion. Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros were both 23 when
they won.
But Woods is looking to have more of an impact on golf than
just in the record book.
"I think it's going to open up a lot of doors and create
a lot of opportunities and draw a lot of people into golf who
never thought of playing the game," he said. "I think
this can do a lot for golf in terms of minority participation."
Woods played with uncanny confidence on Saturday. Several times,
he walked to pick the ball out of the cup even as the putts were
barely halfway to the hole.
"His mind is like the mind I had when I was in my prime,"
Nicklaus said after finishing his round on Saturday. "He's
very smart, very intelligent. That's why I don't think anything
is going to happen to him tomorrow."
Woods was finally shaken from his stoic stare on No. 11 when
the massive gallery reacted to his birdie with a wild standing
ovation.
He flashed that brilliant smile again after his tee shot on
the dangerous 12th hole safely cleared Rae's Creek - scene of
so many watery disasters in Masters past - and plopped just 15
feet from the hole.
And on No. 13, he stared disgustedly at the cup in bitter disappointment
after making a mere human par. He had made two eagles and six
birdies on his last eight par-5 holes until then.
When Woods rolled in a birdie putt at No. 15, Stankowski looked
up at the TV with an air of the inevitable and said, "Oh,
is he 14 under now? That's encouraging."
On Friday, Montgomerie said his experience in major championships
- he has a second and a third in the U.S. Open and a second in
the PGA - would serve him well in his matchup with Woods, who
was contending in a major for the first time as a professional.
It was Woods who played like he had spent his entire life on
the golf course, which, of course, he has.
Woods made two good par-saving putts in the first three holes
to get his confidence early, rolling in a 4-footer on the first
hole and a 13-footer on No. 3. After that, he putted as if he
had never heard the horror stories of the steeply contoured greens
that putt with the speed of a tile floor.
He made a 15-footer for birdie on No. 5, a 12-footer on the
seventh hole and two-putted for birdie from 20 feet on No. 8.
Woods turned the front nine with an eight-stroke lead and quickly
made it nine with a 312-yard drive and a 143 yard wedge to 10
feet for a birdie on No. 11.
The back nine was almost a mere formality, an almost bureaucratic
rubber-stamping of Woods' greatness.
Sometime Sunday afternoon, Tiger Woods - and golf - will make
it official.
A new day has dawned.
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