Tiger Inc. and the Kid
By Rich Hofmann / Knight Ridder Newspapers
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Tiger Woods is 22 years old and Matt Kuchar
is 19, contemporaries who live in different universes. Woods is
the defending Masters champion and Kuchar is the defending U.S.
Amateur champion. Tradition here dictates that the two play together
in the first round of the Masters.
Tradition here dictates a lot of things.
Woods immediately saw the irony, right there on the first fairway,
as he walked with his caddy, Fluff Cowan. He didn't know at the
time that he would shoot a very good 1-under 71 in the pine-lined
wind tunnel that was Augusta National, leaving him two shots off
the lead. He didn't know, either, that Kuchar would not only play
well -- a par-72 -- but that he would play with a smile on his
face that lasted from the practice green until he putted out on
18.
Kuchar's father was his caddy. Kuchar's buddies from Georgia
Tech were following him around the course. The galleries were
roaring for him almost without an excuse. He had daydreamed the
moment a million times, and now he was living it, and now he was
saying, "This was better (than the dream). This was a lot
better."
There was Kuchar, age 19, on a cloud, cutting Spanish class
to be here.
And there was Woods, age 22, defending Masters champion, Tiger
Inc.
"I was talking to Fluff going up 1," Woods said.
"It was kind of weird. The roles were reversed. I was calling
him ÔKid.' "
X X X
It was a fascinating study:
Decibel for decibel, the crowd cheered for Kuchar more.
Now, there were a couple of extenuating circumstances. First
off, they love their amateurs here at Augusta for the same reason
they love free parking at the course and cheap concession sandwiches
stuffed into green plastic bags.
It harkens back to a simpler time, and creates the illusion
that within this little green world, it really is like it used
to be.
So forget about all of those people out on Washington Road
scalping their tickets for thousands of dollars. Forget about
the local guy who ended up killing himself last year because he
got caught in a ticket squeeze and couldn't supply his customers.
Cheer for the amateur. Pretend it's '61 all over again.
So there's that. And then this Kuchar is local. He attends
Georgia Tech on a scholarship, a Robert T. Jones Jr. Scholarship,
the same Robert T. Jones Jr. who just happened to build this place.
Add that he played well, and the smile, and, well, they liked
him. And they cheered for him.
Yet they came to see Tiger. They came in ridiculous numbers
to see Tiger. Neighboring holes would be virtually deserted as
Woods and Kuchar snaked their way through the historic layout.
They came. They saw. But they conquered their emotions. There
is no obvious contingent of people rooting hard for Tiger to repeat
his extraordinary win. What had built last April into a wildly
enthusiastic celebration of Woods and his victory for the ages
has evolved into an eerie quiet.
The applause is polite. The people aren't pulling against him
or anything, but he is not greeted by any kind of spontaneous
roar as he walks up a fairway and reaches the green.
The No. 1 spectator attraction in golf today, and maybe in
the history of the sport, is exactly that: an attraction, not
an icon.
They have come here to witness, not to worship.
They have come, too, with a challenge in their gaze.
OK, MR. TIGER WOODS, LET'S SEE YOU DO IT AGAIN.
And so, there was a little bit of joy in the voice of the man
standing near the first tee, just as Woods and Kuchar were about
to begin their rounds.
The wind, which was sometimes so strong that you found yourself
spreading your feet a bit for some additional balance, had nearly
blown the hat from the guy's head. So he was standing there, one
hand holding it down until the gust passed, and nearly cackled,
"Nobody's shooting 18-under this year."
If the guy lasted that long, he would have loved what happened
to Woods at No. 12, the little par-3 with the water in front that
features devilish winds even on calm days. You can imagine what
it was like in Thursday's gale. It was hit and hope and nothing
else and Woods ended up in the back bunker.
When he got there, there was a small tree branch that had blown
onto his ball. He couldn't risk moving it, and the resulting chip
was short, and a bogey was the result. And, in quick order, Woods
angrily threw the branch to the ground after his shot, and then
the ball after he'd marked it, and then his putter after he'd
finished up.
By the next hole, though, he was laughing again. And Kuchar
would say, "He's very competitive. You could tell that from
forever. You can tell he's competitive. He doesn't enjoy when
he's not perfect. But he played good golf today. I knew he had
a good time. We sat back a couple of times and said, ÔThis
is great.' "
X X X
At an awards dinner on Wednesday night, Woods told the assembled
golf writers that he had learned a lesson at last summer's U.S.
Open, when he blew off an interview session after shooting a bad
score, claiming, "I wasn't the story."
He said he learned. He also said, "People fail to realize,
when they were 21, did they have the responsibilities that I have?"
Woods said that, and you couldn't help but think again about
Matt Kuchar, who is 3 years younger than Woods and 3 million miles
away. Kuchar was in that interview room telling stories about
the emotion of seeing his grandparents near the first tee, and
the process of begging his professors for a little leniency, and
his stroll around the course before his round began, a walk that
ended with a look at the scoreboard.
"There was my name on the scoreboard and I hadn't done
a darn thing yet," he said. "That was pretty cool."
That was Tiger Woods once, fitting in some Stanford course
work between Masters preparations, living here on the grounds
in the fabled Crow's Nest. That was Tiger Woods and it wasn't
that long ago.
But it's a time that's gone, and it's never coming back.
And as Matt Kuchar, age 19, grinned through his dream round
at Augusta National, Tiger Woods, age 22, couldn't help but notice.
And didn't he miss it?
Even a little?
"No," Woods said. "Because if I had that back,
I'd have to go back to a sloppy, old range on the El Nino coast."
Instead, Tiger Inc. heads for Round 2.
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(c) 1998, Philadelphia Daily News.
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