Thursday, October 21, 1999
Disney’s National Car Rental Classic
Tiger on trail toward $6 million
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Winning five tournaments, adding
his second major championship and soaking up the thrill of a Ryder
Cup victory apparently isn’t enough for Tiger Woods going
into the last three tournaments of the year.
“I’d like to put a little hat trick on them,”
Woods said Wednesday at Disney’s National Car Rental Classic,
his first 72-hole tournament in seven weeks. “That would
be nice.”
That just might happen.
Even though he hasn’t played since the Ryder Cup four
weeks ago, even though he will be playing for the first time since
undergoing Lasix eye surgery, Woods has proven once again that
anything is possible.
He has had such an astounding season that even with $12.5 million
in prize money on the line in the last three tournaments —
$2.35 million in combined first-place checks — only three
players have a mathematical chance to surpass him on the money
list.
The other side of the equation is this: Woods can win two of
the next three tournaments and become the first $6 million man
in golf.
“That would definitely put a good end to the year,”
Woods said. “If that doesn’t happen, what’s really
important to me right now is making sure that my game stays solid.
If I can continue that, I know I’ll probably give myself
a chance in the tournaments to come.”
It all starts Thursday next to the Magic Kingdom, where Woods
leads a strong field that includes 27 of the top 40 on the money
list.
This is the final tournament to qualify for next week’s
Tour Championship in Houston, where only the top 30 on the money
list compete for $5 million. That explains why every player from
No. 27 to No. 40 is at Disney.
So what is Woods doing here?
Aside from the fact the Magnolia and Palm courses are a mere
30-minute drive from home, Woods is ready to gear up for a hectic
finish to the season.
Next up is the Tour Championship, followed by the final $5
million World Golf Championship in Spain. After that, he goes
to Taiwan for the Johnnie Walker Classic, followed by the World
Cup in Malaysia a two-day exhibition in Japan and then the Grand
Slam for the four major championship winners in Hawaii.
Whew.
“I’m getting ready to go on a schedule that’s
going to be tough on the body,” Woods said. “So I’ve
stayed away from the game as long as I possibly could.”
Maybe he should have stayed away longer to give everyone else
a chance.
While David Duval, the only player in the top five on the money
list not at Disney, had the best spring in 25 years by winning
four times, Woods has made that a distant memory.
It all started one morning on the driving range in May.
After more than a year of a meticulous, step-by-step overhaul
of a swing that was good enough to win the Masters in record fashion,
Woods stopped thinking about mechanics and found that his rebuilt
swing started coming naturally to him.
He called swing coach Butch Harmon with the news: “I got
it. Everything has come together.”
Then, he went out and proved just how much it had.
“I went out and shot 61 the first round of the Byron Nelson,
and I’ve gone on that stretch since,” he said.
That stretch has established Woods once again as the premier
player in golf. He has finished worse than seventh just once since
then, a tie for 37th in the Sprint International, the week after
he won the PGA Championship.
Take out Carnoustie, the toughest conditions in a British Open
since World War II, and Woods has averaged 68.5 per round. In
fact, Carnoustie was the last 72-hole stroke play tournament that
he failed to win.
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