Tuesday, December 6, 2000
Tiger in Tangoland: Woods leads
U.S. team
By KEVIN GRAY
Associated Press Writer
BELLA VISTA, Argentina (AP) — It's
a feat only Tiger Woods could manage: nudging soccer off the front
pages in Argentina at the height of the league championship and
days after an Argentine club was crowned one of the world's best.
This normally soccer-crazed South American
country has suddenly gone mad for the world's top-rated golfer,
who along with some of golf's biggest stars is playing in Latin
America for the first time.
Woods joins David Duval to form the U.S.
team playing in the World Cup of golf at the Buenos Aires Golf
Club on the outskirts of the Argentine capital. Two-man teams
from 24 countries will vie for the championship, beginning Thursday.
Last year, Woods teamed with Mark O'Meara
to lead the United States to its 22nd victory in the event, beating
Spain by five strokes in Malaysia. Woods won the individual title
by nine strokes with a 21-under 263 total. Both scores set tournament
records.
This year's competition offers a slightly
altered format, including two days of alternate-shot, played by
each squad's two teammates, and two days of four-ball, similar
to play in the Ryder Cup and President Cup tournaments.
The winning tandem will split $1 million
from the purse of $3 million.
Woods and Duval needed little coaxing to
play, while several big-name golfers decided to sit out the season-ending
tournament. Among those absent are South Africa's Ernie Els, England's
Colin Montgomerie and Germany's Bernhard Langer.
Looking to upend the heavily favored U.S.
team will be Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez,
Canada's Mike Weir and Glen Hnatiuk, Ireland's Padraig Harrington
and Paul McGinley, Scotland's Paul Lawrie and Gary Orr, and Ian
Woosnam and Phillip Price of Wales.
England, the 1997 champion, will be represented
by Jamie Spence and Brian Davis.
But Woods is undoubtedly the big draw for
Argentines normally engrossed in the country's more popular sports:
soccer, basketball and tennis.
Even still, Argentina has a rich golf tradition.
Angel Cabrera and Eduardo Romero, the two members of the Argentine
team competing in this year's tournament, both rank in the top
50 in the world.
But in Argentina, golf is still considered
an exclusive sport for the wealthy, although Woods apparently
is succeeding in doing something once unimaginable here, eclipsing
local soccer stars as a hero to young Argentines.
“Tiger's my idol!” said 15-year-old
Leandro Fuertes as he craned his neck for a glance at Woods when
the golfer approached the 18th green during a practice round.
“My friends are crazy for soccer, but for me, golf's my game.”
A friend, Matias Gramajo, 12, drew on another
star — this one homegrown — to put Tiger's appeal in
perspective: “I like how Tiger dominates golf like Maradona
dominated soccer.”
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