Sunday, June 18, 2000
Tiger leads U.S. Open by 10
strokes
By Craig Bestrom
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PEBBLE BEACH — At every level since
he began playing golf at the age of 2, Tiger Woods has dominated.
He has never been as phenomenal as this.
Woods is 8 under par through 54 holes and
leads the 100th U.S. Open by 10 shots. When he won the Masters
in 1997, Woods led by nine heading into Sunday.
“The tournament is not over yet,”
Woods said. “Until it's finished, yeah, then I'll think about
it, and I'll reflect on it and hopefully have some good memories.
But until that moment comes, I need to keep working and get the
job done. Then, I'll enjoy it pretty good.”
Ten shots. You have to go back to 1921 to
find anyone who led by anywhere near that much at this point in
a U.S. Open. That's when Jim Barnes led by seven after 54 holes
and won by nine.
Woods will be paired with Ernie Els in the
final twosome at 12:40 p.m. today. A Woods victory will make him
the eighth player to go wire-to-wire in this championship. Payne
Stewart did it most recently, in 1991. It also will give Woods
a seventh USGA championship, adding to his three U.S. Junior Amateur
titles (1991-93) and three U.S. Amateur crowns (1994-96).
About the only question remaining in this
tournament is whether Woods can break the record for margin of
victory, which is 11 by Willie Smith in 1899.
“I guess starting from when I was a
little boy, I've always enjoyed competing,” said Woods, who
by winning today will be only a British Open title away from the
career Grand Slam at the age of 24. “I think that's one of
the reasons why I've been able to win tournaments, because I thoroughly
enjoy competing, win or lose.”
Woods' record-setting performance, which
began with a Pebble Beach U.S. Open record 6-under 65 on Thursday,
continued Saturday at 6:30 a.m. with Woods completing a second-round
69 that gave him the 36-hole Open record for his six-stroke lead.
When he returned to the course about five
hours later, everyone below him on the leader board was making
bogeys and falling further behind.
“I was looking at the leader board
all day,” Woods said, “and it was not playing easy out
there. It's hard to shoot a good number when it's blowing out
there. The greens aren't that smooth and they're rock hard.”
Still, Woods managed to increase his lead
by pouring in a long birdie putt on the second hole to get to
9 under. It was yet another example of the brilliant putting,
superb shot-making and mental toughness that seem to set him apart
week after week.
While nearly everyone else was faltering
in typical rough, windy conditions that Opens at Pebble Beach
are becoming famous for (16 players shot 80 or higher), Woods
recovered from a triple bogey on the fourth hole by making birdies
on Nos. 6, 7 and 9. He bogeyed No. 10 and birdied the par-5 14th
after reaching it in two shots, then parred in for a round of
par 71.
Els climbed from 30th place after two rounds
to sole possession of second after a spectacular round of 3-under-par
68 that included an eagle-2 on the fourth hole.
Ireland's Padraig Harrington shot a 72,
and Miguel Angel Jimenez had 76 to share third at 3 over.
“With the exception of one player,
everyone is over par and everyone is struggling with the golf
course,” said Phil Mickelson, who said he played well in
a round of 73 that left him tied for fifth at 4 over with Jose
Maria Olazabal. “I don't know how Tiger has done so well.
I stopped looking at his score a while ago. Nobody has the opportunity
to catch him. The only way anybody is going to get back in the
race is if he were to come back, and it just doesn't look like
that is going to happen.”
No one has ever come back from more than
seven strokes to win a U.S. Open, and Woods is 17-2 worldwide
when he has led or shared the lead heading into the final round.
He's far too good to blow this one.
“He's just better in all aspects of
the game, period, especially mentally,” explained Rocco Mediate.
“A lot of people have trouble with some of the comments Davis
(Love III) and Colin (Montgomerie) made. The truth is the truth.
Yeah, he can be beat. But he's going to win more times over a
10- or 12-year haul and we've got no chance. The guy is better
than everyone else.”
Woods simply does things no one else can.
He's rolling in long putt after long putt, he's making birdies
from places others are fighting to make bogeys and he knows only
he can prevent himself from winning.
“I've never had a lead like this, even
in fantasy golf,” Woods said. “It's not necessarily
just making putts, it's making putts at the right time. There
comes a time in the round when you need to make that big par putt
to keep the momentum going. I've been able to make those putts
this week.”
Woods' most amazing shot of the third round
was the blast from thick grass beside a bunker on the par-5 sixth
hole, about 65 yards from the green. Standing with one foot in
the bunker and his ball in an awkward position, Woods not only
blasted it out of trouble, but onto the green and into position
for another birdie.
Meanwhile, the course was blasting everyone
else.
Masters champion Vijay Singh shot 80, Sergio
Garcia had 81 and Hal Sutton fired 83. Els was the only player
to break par, while Woods and Michael Campbell matched 71s for
the next-best rounds of the day.
“I thought I played pretty decent today,”
said Mickelson, who thought the windy, crusty conditions made
Pebble Beach play about as tough as it possibly can. “In
year's past, even par has always been the score at the U.S. Open.
For Tiger to break par the way he has shows how he has separated
himself not just from present-day golfers but from golfers from
the past as well.”
Bobby Clampett agreed.
“Tiger is untouchable right now,”
Clampett said. “There's not a shot in the bag he doesn't
have. Give him the trophy.”
They will, at about 5 p.m. on Sunday.
(c) 2000, San Jose Mercury
News (San Jose, Calif.).
Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury News,
at http://www.sjmercury.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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