Tiger Woods struggles, still stays close
By Glenn Nelson
The Seattle Times
(KRT)
REDMOND, Wash. -- The combined heat from a searing sun and
a PGA Championship run began to beat hard on Tiger Woods during
the back nine of his second round at Sahalee Country Club on Friday.
By the 16th tee, matters had become rather toasty. Before addressing
his ball, he continued addressing himself for blowing a short
putt for par on the previous hole.
"Gawd!" Woods spewed, continuing the self-directed
tirade in a mutter. Then he hitched up his baggy khakis, crushed
a 3-iron onto the fairway, hit a 9-iron 18 feet from the pin and
planted his putt for his only birdie of the round.
Crisis averted.
It's one thing to have declared himself "a more mature
Tiger" as a front-runner who'd just scorched Sahalee for
a course-record 66 on Thursday. But that theory needed testing.
Greatness, after all, is measured most accurately by hard times.
And though he fell off the lead after shooting a 2-over-par
72 on Friday, Woods swallowed his big swig of adversity with aplomb.
"A round like this gives you more confidence than anything,"
said Woods, who still was just two strokes behind leader Vijay
Singh. "You're able to hang in there and get out of it."
Compared to his first salvo at Sahalee, Woods' second round
was a rather masochistic one. Like Thursday, he didn't strike
the ball well off the tee. Unlike Thursday, he played in the afternoon,
when fairways and greens were baked to perilous quickness.
The combination spelled trouble -- but trouble that Tiger tamed.
Woods bunkered an approach shot on 10 but saved par, then detoured
to a cluster of Honey Buckets at the 11th, which he also parred.
He pulled his tee shot on No. 12 onto an embankment in the rough,
prompting him to slam his 3-wood into his bag, yet composed himself
to save par again.
Asked later if a particular par save had kept him going, Woods
responded, "No, I can't count that high."
On it went until the 18th, where Woods waited out two duck
flybys, then smashed his tee shot into a tight patch of rough
behind a middling fir. A gust of wind convinced him to switch
to a 6-iron, which he stroked ferociously 10 feet from the pin.
A spike mark impeded his run at a birdie, but he stuck a short
putt for par.
The result arguably put Woods in better position to strike
this weekend. He never has won a PGA Tour event going wire to
wire. Plus the conventional wisdom is that it's easier to win
major championships from behind.
Not only that, the round convinced Woods to stay his course.
Though many prophesied otherwise, he argues his power will serve
him well if the weather stays hot and Sahalee remains greased.
That way, he can continue to eschew his driver in favor of loftier
irons that give balls a better chance to settle on hardened ground.
"This is one of those golf courses where you really can't
change your strategy," Woods said. "Because if you do,
you try to get too aggressive, then it's going to cost you."
Woods pushed the edge all right, but just enough to confirm
the hypothesis and embolden him to remain in a hunt where many
didn't think he belonged.
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(c) 1998, The Seattle Times.
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