Tuesday, October 24, 2000
And now, back to the Tiger
tour
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Just
because the Presidents Cup is over doesn't mean the end of team
golf for the rest of the year.
Starting this week, it's back to Tiger against
the tour.
Before the gates to Disney World opened
Tuesday morning, Tiger Woods raced up the fairway in a cart and
got out long enough to hit an approach to a pin tucked right behind
a steep bunker, the ball checking to a stop 12 feet away.
He was done for the day, an 18-hole practice
round that lasted all of 75 minutes.
“My game is a lot better than I thought
it would be after the break,” he said.
The National Car Rental Classic at Disney
will be Woods' first stroke-play tournament in six weeks. When
last seen playing for money, he hit a 6-iron from 218 yards out
of a fairway bunker and over the water to win the Canadian Open.
Such shots have been expected out of Woods,
as have the results.
He doesn't win every time he plays, just
half the time. No one has won as often as he has in 50 years,
and it's been even longer since any player won at such an alarming
rate.
Nine victories on the PGA Tour. Three straight
majors, scoring records in each of them. All that's left now is
another hat trick.
A year ago, Woods came to Disney for his
first tournament since team matches — the Ryder Cup, in that
case — and talked about winning the last three tournaments
of the season. No one doubted it could be done, but not everyone
took him seriously.
“I thought it could be done,”
Woods said. “Simple as that.”
Then, he beat Ernie Els by one stroke at
Disney. In a Tour Championship filled with grief over the death
of Payne Stewart, he blew past the field to win by four strokes.
The next stop was Spain, where he beat local favorite Miguel Angel
Jimenez at Valderrama.
Any questions?
The only doubts now are whether Woods can
find motivation. He almost always does, whether real or imagined.
The tangible motivation comes from Byron
Nelson. Woods came up short in his amazing bid to match the most
untouchable record in golf, Nelson's 11-tournament winning streak
in 1945. Woods got as high as six until Phil Mickelson finally
stopped him at San Diego.
Woods can never win 18 times in a year,
as Nelson did in '45, simply because he barely plays 18 times
a year. Still, another hat trick like last year would match Nelson's
record of winning 60 percent of his tournaments.
Nelson won 18 of 30 events. The best Woods
can finish is 12 of 20.
“I didn't know what his percentage
was,” Woods said. “I just know the total number and
the streak. But I do know he had one heck of a year.”
So has Woods, and it's not over yet.
The other source of motivation comes from
Woods, even if he has to make it up.
He put drama into the final round of his
15-stroke victory in the U.S. Open by trying to finish without
a bogey and break the margin of victory in majors set in 1862.
He managed to put another thrilling finish onto an 11-stroke victory
at Firestone by making birdie on the last hole — in the dark.
The only other double-digit margin this
year came in the Presidents Cup, a 211/2-101/2 victory for the
Americans that was worth watching for only one reason — Woods
against Vijay Singh, whose caddie wore a hat with “Tiger
Who?” stitched on the back.
Smart move.
Woods loves match play and the gamesmanship
that goes with it, such as when he refused to concede an 18-inch
putt to Singh on the fourth hole, an awkward exchange of Singh's
uneasy smile and Woods' stoic stare.
When the cup was clinched, Woods' match
was on the 14th hole and still heating up.
“He came over and congratulated me
about winning the cup, and I said, 'Don't forget about me and
don't forget about us. I'm still standing here, looking you right
in the eye,'” Woods said.
The match was meaningless to everyone but
Woods. He poured a birdie on top of Singh at the 14th to stay
1-up and closed him out three holes later.
When asked if he said anything to Singh's
caddie, Woods only smiled.
“I didn't have to,” he said, only
mentioning the score — 2 and 1.
The only score that matters to him over
the next three weeks is 3-0. Along with tying Nelson's winning
percentage, Woods could become the first player to go over $10
million in one season. Maybe then, he can appreciate what he's
done.
Or maybe not.
He spent much of his five-week break fishing,
a perfect time to reflect on a remarkable season.
“You would think I would,” he
said. “But when you're fishing, all you care about is getting
that fish.”
When he's playing, all he cares about is
winning.
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