Monday, April 2, 2001
It's Tiger time again!
By GERRY DULAC
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Phil Mickelson has won three times since the previous major championship,
and on two occasions the person he conquered was Tiger Woods.
But when Mickelson tried to catch him two weeks ago at the Bay
Hill Invitational, Woods summoned some of that awesome magic and
proved with one thrust of a 5-iron why he is unchallenged as the
best player in the world.
Mickelson finished second to Woods, who won with a birdie on the
final hole, thus watching the world's No. 1 player put an end
to what was a slump for him but a career for just about any other
PGA Tour player. A week later, Woods added an exclamation point
with a victory in The Players Championship, the first time he
has won that event.
Not that he needed to be on a roll, but the back-to-back victories
couldn't have come at a better time for Woods. He arrives in Augusta,
Ga., tomorrow to start preparing for the Masters, to start preparing
for another slice of history. It is the first major of the year,
the first since he won the final three majors of 2000, and there
is another date with history.
“I wasn't playing that bad,” Woods said of his so-called
slump. “It wasn't like I was missing cuts every week. I was
right there with a chance to win in virtually every tournament
I teed it up in, and I think that's pretty good.
“It's just that I had not won and that's part of the game.
It is a game that is very fickle. You can try as hard as you want,
and sometimes it just doesn't work out.
“Now I've won two tournaments in a row and I'm sure they'll
write about something else.”
They will if Woods wins his third in a row at Augusta National,
the course where he shot a record score with a record victory
margin in 1997.
Some players are reluctant to be on a winning streak headed to
Augusta, fearful they might have already used up their good fortune
for the year. Not Tiger. When he wins one, he wants another. When
he wins two in a row, that only puts more fuel in his tank to
win a third.
That's why, at the age of 25, he already has 26 victories in 97
starts as a professional. By comparison, Jack Nicklaus had only
19 wins in 106 starts as a professional at a comparable age.
But, unlike last year, when he won the U.S. Open and British Open
championships by a combined 23 shots, players will not roll over
and play dead for Woods. At least, you wouldn't think so. Not
after the way players such as Mark Calcavecchia and Joe Durant
have been posting record scores this season. Not after the way
Tiger was caught from behind by Mickelson in one tournament and
gave another away to Thomas Bjorn when he drove into the water
on the final hole of the Dubai Desert Classic.
“When he just doesn't produce the same golf or same finishes
that he's been doing, guys do take notice of it,” said Vijay
Singh, the defending Masters champion. “And, now, him not
winning in Dubai, there's a lot of guys that won't be intimidated
as much by that.
“I think this year the guys are a little bit more attuned
to Tiger. They're used to all that now and not fearing him as
much as they used to. I think the intimidating factor has kind
of lessened a little bit, and the guys are getting better.”
One of them is Mickelson, No. 2 in the world and the tour's fifth-leading
money winner. He almost never seems to back down in Tiger's presence.
Another is Davis Love III, who appears to have shaken his Tiger
fright and has elevated his game, like Mickelson, to another level.
Love, though, has struggled the past couple weeks and even missed
the cut at The Players, which is why he entered the BellSouth
Classic being played this weekend outside Atlanta.
Woods has forced every player to crank it up another notch. Either
that, or risk being embarrassed, which is what Ernie Els said
he was after being dusted by 12 shots in the U.S. Open at Pebble
Beach.
“I've been thinking about it since the PGA Championship (in
August),” Mickelson said of the Masters. “Every day
it crosses everyone's mind as least once.”
There is one person who always thinks about it.
Tiger.
If he wins the Masters, Woods will have turned, at least in some
people's eyes, a natural Grand Slam. He will have won four majors
in a row — the U.S. Open, British Open, PGA and the Masters.
No player in modern history has ever won four in a row. OK, Woods
will not have performed the feat in the same calendar year, which,
historically, has been the criteria for the natural slam. But,
as he is quick to point up, Woods will hold titles in all four
majors at one time, something no one has ever been able to claim.
At least, no one from the modern era.
Bobby Jones is the only player credited with having won four major
championships in the same year. In 1930, Jones, as an amateur,
won the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the British Open and the
British Amateur. In those days, that was considered the Grand
Slam.
Since then, the closest anyone has come to performing the feat
is Nicklaus, who won the final major of 1971 — the PGA Championship
— and the first two majors of 1972 — Masters and U.S.
Open. Like Woods, he could have made it four in a row with a victory
in the 1972 British Open, but he finished second by one shot to
Lee Trevino.
If Woods wins four in a row, he will count it as the natural Grand
Slam.
Woods went the first five tournaments this year — six, if
you count Dubai — without a victory. For a player who won
nine times in 2000, that constitutes a slump. Without a Tiger
on their tail, players began not to worry so much about Woods
and began concentrating on making birdies. Lots of 'em. The result?
A slew of record scores and just as many assertions that equipment
— namely new drivers and balls — had lessened the chasm
between Woods and the rest of the PGA Tour.
“He showed how good he is in Augusta and in the majors,”
Singh said. “But you can't go in there just thinking about
Tiger because it's a lot of other guys who are playing so well
this year. And the advantage is the new ball this year, that the
guys are just flying the ball so much better.”
But Woods gave everyone a reminder of just what he accomplished
when he beat Mickelson on the final hole at Bay Hill. From a trampled
lie, he hit a 5-iron over water, from 191 yards, to 15 feet. Then,
he curled in the winning birdie and triumphantly pumped his arm
three times, signaling to the rest of the golfing world —
Look out, he's baaaaack!
Then came TPC, the tournament with the strongest field of the
year. Officially, the tournament ended on Monday morning, when
Tiger and 21 other players had to complete the final round. Unofficially,
it ended in the long shadows on Saturday afternoon, when Woods
drained an improbable 60-foot birdie putt at the 17th island green.
That brings him to Augusta, site of his first major. He has been
the favorite every year since his victory in 1997. Last year,
he finished fifth, six behind Singh, despite taking a triple-bogey
6 at No. 12 on Thursday. That hole, in retrospect, might cost
him the natural Grand Slam in 2000.
Never, though, has Woods had the determination to win the green
jacket as much as this year.
History is for the taking.
And Tiger loves good theater.
“I think Tiger set the tone last year of how good he played
(in the majors),” Singh said. “Last two years, as a
matter of fact.”
Maybe three.
(For news and information about Pittsburgh visit http://www.post-gazette.com/.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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