Uneasy playing partners: Tiger and Tour
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) - The PGA Tour is spelled with a capital
T, as in Tiger.
Who else but Tiger Woods could overshadow Bobby Jones, Byron
Nelson, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus in consecutive tournaments?
The Wacky World of Woods rolled into Muirfield Village Golf
Club on Wednesday for the Memorial Tournament wrapped in an uneasy
aura that golf has become Tiger vs. Tour.
"I can't win them all," Woods said Wednesday, as
he tried to deny his invincibility to 17 television cameras, two
dozen still photographers and nearly 100 reporters.
Later, asked if he's the one to beat this week, Woods said,
"I think there are 155 other guys out there to beat."
It was an unusually modest answer for Woods, who has as one
of his great strengths an unshakable belief in himself. And it
was an answer perhaps elicited as much by the weight of the unrealistic
expectations of fans as by the slighted feelings of other players.
"You get into lulls," Woods said about several bad
swings last week that cost him the tournament. "Right now,
I'm into that lull," he said, explaining his swing is too
steep.
Facing a field that includes last week's Tiger killer, David
Frost, top-10 money winners Brad Faxon, Mark O'Meara and Paul
Stankowski along with Greg Norman, Tom Lehman and the returning
John Daly, Woods will he hard pressed to win for the fourth time
in 10 tries this year.
But Woods has played so well since coming on tour last August
- winning five times in 17 tries - that it was almost a shock
last week when he stumbled Sunday and shot a 72 - with two double
bogeys - to finish fourth at the Colonial.
His air of invincibility had grown particularly thick after
his 12-stroke victory in the Masters and then his follow-up win
at the Byron Nelson Classic after four weeks away from competition.
The near-win at the Colonial, the tournament associated with
Hogan, after his victories at the Masters, created by Jones, and
the Nelson makes the Memorial, Nicklaus' event, seem almost like
the final leg of a Legends Slam.
"It's just great to play in a tournament that's Jack's
tournament," Woods said. "I felt great playing Byron's
tournament, Mr. Hogan's tournament. It's an honor. These guys
are the guys who brought golf to what it is now."
There isn't exactly resentment among players toward Woods,
but they would like to poke a few holes in his mystique.
"I think eventually the excitement is going to take on
a more realistic tone," Lehman said Wednesday about the attitude
of fans. "Right now, it's at a point where Tiger Woods is
Superman and everybody else is just a bunch of loyal serfs out
there trying to keep up. That's not the case at all."
Pointing to the periods of domination by Nick Faldo, Nick Price
and Norman, Lehman said: "Anytime a great player is on a
roll he's going to do great things."
Asked how long Woods' roll can continue, Lehman responded:
"The record will speak for itself when it's all said and
done."
Woods, who says his swing is still not up to Masters standards
and that he is living by his short game, heads into the Memorial
and the U.S. Open two weeks away with unwavering calm.
"I love to play golf, simple as that," Woods said.
"I absolutely love to play. Whether it's with my pop back
home, playing with my friends, playing in tournaments, I just
love to play."
With barely a pause Woods then tacked on the final component
that makes him so special.
"And I love to compete even more," he said. "So
you put those two things together and you have the combination
that's me."
That formidable combination gets its next workout Thursday
at the Memorial.
DIVOTS: Fuzzy Zoeller and John Daly played a practice around
together on Wednesday along with David Duval and Mike Standly.
Zoeller sported a bright yellow headcover of a bird looking suspiciously
like a chicken. Zoeller hit his drive on No. 1 perfectly, then
said to Daly, "Take that, big boy. After what I've been through
for the last three weeks I ain't afraid of you."... Standly
might have the hottest bag on tour. It's adorned with a bright
bottle of Tabasco sauce. ... Zoeller, who lost his Kmart contract
in the Woods flap, has no endorsements on his bag, only the logo
of his Covered Bridge course in New Albany, Ind. ... David Frost,
winner of the Colonial last week, practiced on the putting green
while his 9-year-old son, Sean, retrieved balls for him.
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