Tuesday, August 17, 1999
Woods-Garcia could be a rivalry for the ages
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) - The only thing that could top the drama
of the final round in the PGA Championship would be for Tiger
Woods and Sergio Garcia to meet at The Country Club with the Ryder
Cup on the line.
That's out of Ben Crenshaw's control since the draw is blind
for the Sunday singles matches, but the U.S. captain couldn't
stop talking about them.
"That's the future of golf," Crenshaw said Monday.
"And I think as far as drama, it's in pretty safe hands."
The final major championship of the 20th century may have been
a sneak preview to the first part of the next 100 years. All that
separated Woods and Garcia at Medinah Country Club was four years
and one stroke.
Woods, 23, became the youngest player since Seve Ballesteros
in 1980 to win two majors. Two par putts - the one Garcia missed
on the 16th and the one Woods made on the 17th - kept the 19-year-old
Spaniard from becoming the youngest major winner in 131 years.
If the dream pairing in the Ryder Cup doesn't pan out, then
the Masters can't get here soon enough.
Rivalries are born in the majors, and this one came out kicking
and screaming. Woods nearly squandered a five-stroke lead with
seven holes to play, but won the PGA Championship by a stroke
with a routine two-putt for par on the last hole.
It left him so mentally spent it was all Woods could do to
raise the Wanamaker Trophy.
"To come out of it on top took everything out of me,"
he said.
Woods has been part of every rivalry equation since becoming
the youngest Masters champion in 1997. Garcia is a natural match,
given his confidence and charisma.
"Sergio and I play very similar games," Woods said.
"We are both very aggressive, both hit the ball a long ways
and both like to be creative. I know what he's thinking out there."
Garcia has a selection of shots matched only by his mentor,
Ballesteros.
"He's Seve with a smile," Tom Lehman said.
And like Ballesteros, Garcia defined his swashbuckling style
with a single shot on the grandest stage in golf.
Ballesteros was also a 19-year-old in only his second major
as a professional when he finished second behind Johnny Miller
in the 1976 British Open. But he became the buzz of Royal Birkdale
by threading a chip shot through two bunkers on the 18th to save
par.
The shot that defines the kid - "El Nino" - was even
more spectacular.
"No one has ever seen a shot like that," Crenshaw
said.
Trailing Woods by one stroke on the 16th hole, Garcia's tee
shot landed between two roots next to one of the 4,161 trees on
Medinah. He had to get the ball off the ground, around the trees
and onto the front of an elevated green 176 yards away - all this
without killing himself, or at least having the ball hit him for
a two-stroke penalty.
"I just closed my eyes, hit the ball and went backwards
just in case the ball hit the tree and comes into me," Garcia
said. "And well, then I opened my eyes and I saw the ball
going to the green. And I was pretty excited there."
So was everyone watching.
"When he hit that shot on 16, he captured America's imagination
and heart," Crenshaw said. "He's magic, he's charismatic,
he's graceful. What a kid. What a fabulous kid."
He is everything Woods once was - and now must become what
Woods is for a true rivalry to take golf into the next millennium.
While Garcia won the hearts of Chicago, Woods won the prize
that mattered most. Woods is still 16 majors behind Jack Nicklaus,
but he is also two ahead of Garcia.
"I said when I turned pro that I wanted to be the No.
1 golfer in the world," Garcia said. "And so I knew
I was going to be a rival for Tiger."
Clearly, this was no "Showdown at Sherwood."
As badly as everyone wanted to make a rivalry out of Woods
and David Duval, they never staged anything close to what took
place at Medinah. Garcia looking up at Woods from the 13th green
and then staring him down was as good as it gets.
"No doubt, we saw something in Sergio that is absolutely
electrifying and captivating," Crenshaw said.
Not to be lost is the utter dominance by Woods this summer,
the result of two years fine-tuning a swing with coach Butch Harmon
that should last for at least the next 20 years.
His victory in the PGA Championship was his fourth in his last
seven tournaments since his post-Masters break. He finished no
worse than a tie for seventh in the others, and that includes
two majors.
"We've sat on the range for countless hours hitting balls,
by ourselves, no one around, and putting in time that people don't
see," Woods said. "It took a little while before everything
came together. And once it did, I'm starting to reap the benefits."
That might have been easier to recognize had he won the PGA
Championship without such a fight put up by someone so young and
so similar.
As it was, the PGA Championship was very much like the British
Open in one respect - it may be remembered as much for the guy
who finished second.
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