Monday, July 24, 2000
Taking the Road (Hole) less traveled
By MIKE LITTWIN
Scripps Howard News Service
If you wanted to understand the state of the golf world in the
new millennium, you had only to watch Tiger Woods and David Duval
— the game's two best — play No. 17 at the Old Course,
the Road Hole, the most famous hole on the most famous course
in the world.
If they didn't invent golf at St. Andrews, it was somewhere just
up the road. They have played there for 500 years or so and had
seen everything the game could offer. That is, until they saw
Tiger Woods shoot 19 under par in the British Open.
I'm starting to think the only thing tougher than beating Woods
is describing his victories. It's like trying to explain art or
religion or philosophy or why anyone after watching Woods still
plays golf.
But the Road Hole provided a perfect word picture for what Woods
has wrought.
By the time Duval had made it to 17, he already was being soundly
beaten by his friend and tormentor. But then he would be destroyed
by a golf hole. He landed in the Road Hole bunker (that's boonker
in Scotland) and needed four shots (that's $%$% in golfland) to
get out. It was a good thing he was wearing the trademark Duval
shades to hide the tears.
Duval kept banging the ball into the side of the bunker the golf
version of banging your head against a wall. That's what it has
come to. There are all the golfers in the world, and then there
is Woods, the wall.
When it was over, Duval had a quadruple bogey. You had to turn
your head.
Like many of you, I had gotten up early to watch, and not only
for the challenge of deconstructing Curtis Strange's accent. I
knew I would be seeing history. As you have heard perhaps a million
times, Woods is now the youngest to complete the modern career
Grand Slam, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack
Nicklaus.
Clearly, at age 24, he belongs on golf's Mount Rushmore. Maybe
that's what Duval was trying to carve out on the Road Hole bunker.
The strangest part is not that Woods set a record for the lowest
score in a major. After all, he already had set records for low
score at the Masters and U.S. Open. It's where he made history.
The U.S. Open was at Pebble Beach. The British Open was at St.
Andrews. It was as if his destiny were being choreographed.
No wonder Tom Watson in Scotland, I'm not sure if he's Young Tom
or Old Tom would suggest that Woods was supernatural.
Duval, who has yet to win a major, was determined to prove that
he deserved to be paired with Woods. And on the front nine, Duval
was actually making a run. It gave all those who root for the
underdog a brief moment of hope. But Duval faded and Woods, who
is like Patton on a tank, ran all over him. So much for underdogs.
The greatest challenge for Woods now is not to get bored.
Certainly, we're facing a redundancy problem.
As far as I can tell, the only person eager to take on Woods is
Nicklaus.
Unfortunately, he's nearly old enough to be Tiger's grandfather.
In what Nicklaus figured was probably made-for-TV choreography,
he took his final walk over Swilken Bridge on No. 18 Friday as
Woods was teeing off on No. 1. They might as well have just shot
Nicklaus actually handing Woods the baton.
After his round, Nicklaus, he of the 18 majors, said of the competition
that Woods is facing, “Right now everyone has thrown up a
white flag to surrender.”
If anyone understands Woods, it would be Nicklaus. He was explaining
why the game looked so easy for Woods. When you know you're going
to make every putt under 15 feet, Nicklaus said, the rest of the
game is pretty much pressure-free. Like Woods, Nicklaus was long
off the tee. But unlike anyone I had ever seen, Nicklaus never
seemed to miss a putt that mattered.
Although everyone concedes there are more good golfers now than
ever before, Nicklaus couldn't help but point out that he played
against people who knew how to win. When Woods dropped onto the
scene — something like an atomic bomb, he dropped —
the older generation was getting older in a hurry and the young
guys had not established themselves. And now Woods has lapped
the field.
Nicklaus insists a competitor will emerge. Competitors always
do emerge eventually. You just wonder when he eventually might
arrive.
If Woods wins the PGA Tournament next month, he'll become the
first since Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a year. He has
won three of the past four majors. He has won 13 of his past 23
PGA tournaments. And he played 72 holes at the Old Course and
never landed in a bunker.
It might not take 500 years for it to happen again.
(Contact Mike Littwin of the Denver Rocky Mountain News at http://www.denver-rmn.com.)
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