'He's a Pied Piper': Tiger-mania takes off
in Texas
By MADELINE BARO Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP) - What does he think about Tiger-mania? What does
he eat before tournaments? How did he get so good?
It didn't seem to matter what Tiger Woods did or how he answered
the questions. A swarm of adoring young golfers and their parents
who turned out for a kids' clinic Sunday lavished cheers on his
every move.
"He's a Pied Piper," said Woods' father, Earl. "They'll
follow him anyplace, and it is not restricted to the United States.
I've seen him do the same thing in Scotland."
The 21-year-old golfing phenom is in Texas for this week's
PGA event, the Byron Nelson Classic - his first tournament appearance
since his record-setting Masters performance. Woods also has indicated
he'll play in next week's Colonial Invitational in Fort Worth.
On Sunday, he spent time at the L.B. Houston Municipal Golf
Course giving individual lessons to some of the 150 young clinic
attendees. Woods addressed the group, encouraging them to stay
in school, steer clear of drugs and work hard on their golf games.
"The guy upstairs gave me some talent to play this game,"
he said. "And people fail to realize I worked my butt off
to get where I'm at."
Woods also fielded a few questions, including one about how
it feels to be at the center of the biggest media maelstrom in
sports.
"Huh, that's question No. 1," he said. "You
know, I never dreamt it would be like this. But I can say one
thing, I think it's great for the game. It's bringing all of you
to the game, and that wasn't the case before."
His answer to whether eating healthy before golf games is important
drew rousing cheers: "Usually I eat a cheeseburger or fries
or something like that."
Clinic attendees, some as young as 8 and swinging clubs nearly
their height, praised the golf star with enthusiasm like that
normally reserved for rock 'n' roll stars.
"He's pretty cool," said Jackie Whitmore, 10. "He's
so young and he's really good at golf."
Some of them said that, although Woods is their idol, they've
set their sights on beating him.
"I'm going to be better than Tiger Woods," said Chris
Walters, 9.
Even the great Byron Nelson couldn't restrain himself.
"When I saw Tiger play the first time he was 15,"
Nelson said. "He was the best 15-year-old I ever saw. The
best 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. And now he's 21 and he's the best."
Amid the frenzy of Sunday's clinic, Earl Woods was asked what
he expected this week's tournament to be like.
He had two words: "Utter chaos."
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