Woods is rested, retooled and ready
By MIKE NADEL / AP Sports Writer
LEMONT, Ill. (AP) - Tiger Woods has retooled his swing, reshaped
his putting stroke and, he says, recovered from an overdose of
golf.
Fresh off a week of rest and adjustments, Woods is returning
refreshed to a sport that has reached new heights of popularity
since he turned pro last August.
Nevertheless, the 21-year-old Masters champion doesn't necessarily
expect to win the Western Open, which starts Thursday at Cog Hill
Golf & Country Club's Dubsdread course in southwest suburban
Chicago.
"If (fans) expect me to win every week, I think that's
unrealistic," said Woods, who leads the 1997 PGA Tour with
more than $1.4 million in earnings. "I don't expect myself
to win every week because that's just physically impossible. I'm
human. I'm going to make mistakes. You can't hit the ball well
and putt well every week."
It's been several weeks since his entire game has clicked.
After shooting 11 consecutive rounds under par - a stretch
that included victories in the Masters and Byron Nelson Classic
- Woods has been under par in only one of 12 rounds.
He's a cumulative 15 strokes over par during that span. And
in his last three tournaments (Memorial, U.S. Open, Buick Classic),
his average finish was 43rd, his average winnings $13,428.
"Anytime you slump, you just go back to fundamentals.
You start from ground one and work your way back up, and that's
exactly what I did," said Woods, who skipped last week's
St. Jude's Classic after finishing 43rd in the Buick. "I
tore my swing apart, worked from the ground back up. Same thing
with my putting stroke, and yeah, it's coming around."
And when he wasn't hitting buckets of balls and toiling at
the practice green, Woods just relaxed.
"I fished every day. What else did I do? Watch TV, sleep,
eat. That's about it," he said. "I've never played tournament
golf for an entire year. I've played too much too soon sometimes,
and I've played not enough. I'm trying to find the right balance.
The hard part is trying to keep up your intensity every tournament."
One thing for sure: The fans will be intense at the Western
Open.
The Motorola-sponsored $2 million tournament could draw crowds
as high as 80,000 daily. That's almost solely because of Woods
- whose popularity among old and young, white and black, rich
and poor already is legendary.
Woods knows some fellow pros don't like playing with him because
of the large galleries that follow him.
"But it's more difficult playing in the group ahead of
me because people leapfrog. They like to go ahead and watch us
hit shots on the greens or hit shots off the tee," he said.
"The group ahead has to pay a pretty good price because the
people are always moving."
He will be teeing off with Mark O'Meara and John Cook at 8:33
a.m. Thursday. Justin Leonard, Jeff Sluman and Davis Love III
will precede Woods' group on the 7,073-yard, par-72 Dubsdread
course.
Woods played the Western Open twice as an amateur, missing
the cut in 1994 and finishing 57th the following year.
"It was my first (tour event) cut made in the U.S. And
I shot a 69 the last round, my first round in the 60s," he
said of the '95 Western. "I've had some pretty good experiences
here, some real good positive memories." Divots: If Woods
is "slumping," what about defending Western champion
Steve Stricker? He was one of the hot young golfers on the tour
last year, finishing fourth on the money list. But he has made
the cut in only half his events this year and doesn't appear in
the top 130 in earnings. He shot a 66 in the first round of the
U.S. Open but finished 9-over. "I worked myself into a lot
of bad habits," Stricker said. "One of the strongest
points of my game is to just go out and play, and I'm trying to
do that now." ... Stricker is paired for the first two rounds
with Billy Mayfair, whose career has almost mirrored Stricker's.
Mayfair won the 1995 Western and ranked second on the money list
that year, but has struggled since '96 started.
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