Tiger Woods looks for second leg of Grand Slam
By RON SIRAK AP Golf Writer
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - From the very beginning, Tiger Woods has
done the improbable. A victory in the U.S. Open would be a huge
step toward the impossible - the Grand Slam.
Since the first Masters in 1934, the winner has gone on to
take the U.S. Open only five times, and not since Jack Nicklaus
25 years ago.
Only Ben Hogan in 1953 added a British Open title. He then
skipped the PGA Championship because his badly battered legs from
a 1949 car crash made walking the more than 150 holes of match
play impossible.
No one has ever pulled off the professional Grand Slam - winning
the Masters, U.S. and Britsh Opens and PGA in the same year.
But Woods brings a thrilling sense that anything is possible.
"We've got a guy out there who has decided he wants to
dominate the game," Nicklaus said. "Whether he can do
it, we'll have to wait and see."
Woods has displayed that burning desire to be the best time
and again.
He came back from a 6-down to win his first U.S. Amateur and
was the first person to win the Amateur three consecutive times.
His first PGA Tour victory came in only his fifth start.
In his first Masters as a pro, Woods won by an astonishing
12 strokes, the largest victory margin in a major championship
since the 1862 British Open.
And on top of improbable achievement comes the compelling self-confidence,
an almost arrogant belief that he can do the impossible.
"I expect myself to win every tournament," Woods
said. "That's just my mind-set."
That mind-set has offended some players and mystified others,
but it will be key to the complete game needed to win the Open
at the Congressional Country Club, starting Thursday.
And that mental toughness is part of the reason - along with
the best physical skills ever brought to the game - why winning
the Grand Slam is not out of the question for Woods.
"You know, whether it's realistic or not I couldn't really
tell you," Woods said. "But I think it can be done.
Phil Mickelson last year won four times. Well, if you win the
right tournaments four times, then you have the Slam."
And Woods has an amazing ability to do the right thing at the
right time.
Congressional should favor Woods. At 7,213 yards and only par
70, it is the longest in a major championship. Woods hits the
ball farther than anyone and even when he needs accuracy his 275-yard
2-iron will leave a shorter approach shot than anyone else.
"He can use his length to an advantage at Congressional,"
Tom Watson said. "That can distance him from the rest of
the field."
The Open has a special set of demands - narrow fairways, deep
rough and fast greens. But at Augusta, Woods erased any doubts
that length was the only strong part of his game.
"The incredible thing about the Masters," Watson
said, shaking his head in disbelief, "is that he never three-putted
once in 72 holes."
Augusta National has generous fairways and no rough. The strategy
involves the tricky greens, putting enormous pressure on the short
game.
The strategy at the Open starts with the tee shot and never
lets up.
"The U.S. Open just brings a different number of pressures
and influences on your game that you didn't realize were there,"
defending champion Steve Jones said.
"I was nervous eating breakfast. I was nervous eating
lunch. I was nervous going to bed at night. I was nervous at 3
in the morning."
There also will be pressure from the competition.
Nick Faldo said adding a U.S. Open to his three Masters and
three British Opens was his top priority. Greg Norman has never
won a major championship in the United States but showed his old
form at the Memorial Tournament, shooting a final round 64 to
tie for second.
Tom Lehman, second after a bogey on the final hole of last
year's Open, has failed to follow his British Open victory with
a dominating year, mostly because of poor putting.
Davis Love III has just recently showed signs of recovering
from his three putts from 12 feet on the final hole of the Open
last year when he tied with Lehman for a disappointing second.
Colin Montgomerie, Phil Mickelson and Mark O'Meara, along with
Love, are probably the best players in the world looking for their
first major title.
Jim Furyk, Frank Nobilo, Brad Faxon, Paul Stankowski, Ernie
Els and Vijay Singh are also players to fear.
Woods comes into the Open off a 67th-place finish at the Memorial,
his worst in 18 events as a pro. But he also went into the Masters
after finishing 31st at the Players Championship, his worst finish
of the year at the time.
"I'm just trying to peak at the right times and trying
to get my game ready," Woods explained.
Peaking at the right time is what great players are all about.
Nicklaus won the Masters and U.S. Open in 1972 and finished
second in the British Open by one stroke when Lee Trevino chipped
in on No. 17 at Muirfield. Arnold Palmer went to the British Open
with two majors in hand in 1960 and finished second behind Kel
Nagel at St. Andrews in what Palmer calls "the greatest disappointment
of my career."
Hogan pulled off the triple in 1953. In 1951, he won the Masters
and the U.S. Open but passed up the British Open. Craig Wood won
the first two legs of the Grand Slam in 1941 but there was no
British Open that year because of World War II.
"It would be just fantastic if someone could win the Masters
and the Open and the PGA and the British Open," Palmer said.
"It would do a lot for the game."
Nicklaus, who won 18 major professional championships and had
the same unshakable self-confidence as Woods, perhaps is in the
best position to assess the chances of the Grand Slam.
"Anybody winning all four is a very, very difficult thing,"
Nicklaus said. "But it is possible."
That may be all the chance Woods needs.
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