Sunday, June 18, 2000
Tiger running away with the
field
By Hank Gola
New York Daily News
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — At this point,
not even Tiger Woods can stop Tiger Woods.
The incomparable 24-year-old shot a 71 but
still widened his U.S. Open lead to an insurmountable 10 shots
on Saturday and was in even better position than three years ago
at the Masters, when he led by nine and won by 12.
Ernie Els was in second place, at 2-over,
after shooting the day's only round under par, a 68, but if Woods
matches the worst Open round he's ever had, a 77, the big South
African would still have to shoot 66 to beat him.
Even in his dreams of winning the Open,
Woods never had it this easy.
“No, I'm usually playing against Jack
and Arnie and Hogan and those guys and usually it's neck and neck,”
he said with a smile. “I never had anything like this, not
even in fantasy golf.”
At 8-under-par 205 for the week, Woods'
10-shot lead is the biggest ever heading into the final round
of an Open and he is within reach of the 101-year-old record for
margin of victory - Willie Smith's 11 shots at the 1899 Open at
Baltimore Country Club. If he shoots 66, he'll break the Open
scoring record of 272 held jointly by Jack Nicklaus and Lee Janzen,
who both accomplished it while winning at the far less-demanding
Baltusrol Golf Club.
What's amazing is that he's doing it at
Pebble Beach, where yesterday's wind-blown conditions sent 16
scores soaring into the 80s, including an 82 by his shellshocked
playing partner, Thomas Bjorn, who started the round six shots
back. Woods' even-par round of 71 tied Michael Campbell's as the
second-lowest round of the day. He didn't even expect to make
as much ground just shooting par.
“He hasn't signed his card yet and
I don't think he'll pull a Roberto DeVincenzo,” David Duval
said, recalling the incorrect card that cost DeVincenzo a Masters
title. “It's easy to make a big number quick. But each hole
he passes, it gets closer.”
It's been a simple formula, really. Woods
is hitting 74% of the fairways - which is why he is prouder of
this performance than the `97 Masters - and making every big putt
he looks at. He has also been displaying a rock-solid mind. Maybe
he went into a temper tantrum as he finished his second round
in the morning, cursing over national TV after hooking a drive
into the ocean. But no one mistake has fazed him for longer than
a moment.
Take his biggest hiccup of the day, a triple-bogey
on the third hole. The flag was still as he hit his approach but
a gust suddenly slapped down his 7-iron shot into the thick hay
bordering the front bunker.
It took 30 seconds to locate the ball. At
first, Woods considered taking an unplayable. He tried to hack
it out sideways but advanced it only a foot, then took another
whack and put it four feet off the green. From there, he hit it
15 feet short of the hole and two-putted for a seven.
The next time potential disaster rose up,
he kicked it in the stomach. Woods' second shot on the par-5 sixth
landed in tall grass in front of a fairway bunker. With one foot
in the sand, Woods blasted it out to 10 feet and made the putt
for what on the scorecard looked like a routine birdie. He holed
another 10-footer on seven, by which time Bjorn and Miguel Angel
Jimenez, who started the day six back, had dipped back over par.
Even with the triple-bogey, Woods had increased his lead.
With this big a cushion, Woods (17-2 worldwide
while playing a third-round lead) isn't about to get into a match-play
situation against Els. He'll just worry about his own game. “Somebody's
going to have to shoot a really good number,” Els said. “I
feel if I can drive the ball in a lot of the fairways, I have
a pretty good chance, no matter what he shoots.”
Woods actually has a pretty good chance
no matter what he shoots.
(c) 2000, New York Daily News.
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