Saturday, January 13, 2001
Opens: A trip down memory lane
for Woods
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — The Open championships
in 2000 were played at two of the most famous courses on either
side of the Atlantic Ocean — Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.
This year's Open venues, Southern Hills
in Oklahoma and Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England, don't
have nearly as much tradition or notoriety. But each contain memories
for Tiger Woods, both good and bad.
He has played Southern Hills once before,
in 1996 after what Woods still regards one of his greatest achievements.
He qualified for the Tour Championship in just seven starts after
turning pro two months earlier.
But his father, Earl, was hospitalized with
heart problems that week, and the 20-year-old son spent sleepless
nights with him. Woods finished 20 strokes behind Tom Lehman,
the farthest back he has ever been from a leader after 72 holes.
“I wasn't exactly in the best frame
of mind that week,” Woods said. “We also played in some
pretty cold weather.”
He also remembers Southern Hills putting
a premium on driving with its traditional layout.
As for Lytham?
Woods played the '96 British Open as an
amateur, and that's where he got the first indication that he
might be ready to turn pro.
After opening with a 75, he blitzed the
seaside course for a 66 in the second round and added a pair of
70s on the weekend. Woods was low amateur, tied for 22nd at 281,
10 strokes behind the winner (Lehman again).
“Lytham, I kind of had an inkling that
I could probably play the game at the next level,” Woods
said. “I made eight birdies in 11 holes in the second round.
Really enjoyed playing there. I enjoy running the ball up along
the fairways, playing a different game.”
A different game, indeed.
He turned pro later that year, and the rest
is history. This year, he returns to both courses where the expectations
will be a little higher.
MINDING HIS P'S:
Jesper Parnevik is the father of three daughters, all with names
that begin with the letter P — Peg, Penny and Phillipa. His
wife is expecting their fourth child, and Parnevik's father has
given him a suggestion if it's a boy.
Per-Simon in Swedish, which sounds like
persimmons in golf lingo.
And what if it's a girl?
“Then my wife will be very disappointed,
I can tell you that,” Parnevik said. “She 110 percent
believes it's a boy.”
The fact Mia Parnevik has come to Hawaii
is a bit of a risk. Her due date is in five weeks, and Parnevik
said the baby “has been trying to get out for three weeks
now.”
“The other day, we thought we were
going to have a Hawaiian baby,” he said.
He said their doctor walked him through
the steps in case his wife was ready to deliver and they couldn't
get to a hospital in time. Parnevik appeared to be comfortable
with the prospects, but looks are deceiving.
“I was about to faint when the first
three kids were born,” he said. “The nurses were more
concerned about me than my wife. I don't like that whole situation.”
BACK IN THE SADDLE:
A week ago, Hal Sutton could barely walk as he grunted and groaned
with every swing in a first-round loss to Nick O'Hern in the Match
Play Championship in Australia.
Now, everything appears to be under control
with his lower left back. Sutton was at 2-under 144 through two
rounds, 10 strokes out of the lead. But he said his back was fine.
The PGA Tour's physical therapist adjusted
his back when he arrived at Kapalua, and Sutton wore a brace for
the first two days.
“No problems,” he said.
Still, flying back from Australia made him
wonder what the season held, and made him a little nervous about
the rest of his career. Sutton, the Ryder Cup star at Brookline,
dealt with nagging injuries throughout the second half of the
2000 season.
“I've never had any trouble,”
he said. “I had tendinitis in my left ankle all last year
and started the year with back trouble. That made me really concerned
at that point. I get over that and now this? What's the deal?”
Sutton, 42, said he can't afford to get
old, and not just because of his golf.
He'll leave Maui for a week at home in Louisiana,
where his twin daughters will turn 2 on Friday.
“I'm trying to defy that age factor,”
he said. “Those little girls I've got at the house, they
don't want an old daddy.”
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