Friday, January 12, 2001
Leonard stands up in the wind
to take lead; Tiger three back
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Tiger Woods
was waist-high in the weeds and blown out of his putting stance
by the wind. When his first round of the new year was over, he
was in a familiar position — never too far from the lead.
“I shot the worst score I could have
possible shot, but I'm still right there,” Woods said after
a 3-under 70 that left him three strokes out of the lead Thursday
in the Mercedes Championships.
Justin Leonard put his swing changes to
good use for a 6-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead over another
familiar face, Ernie Els, who made eagle on the par-5 18th for
a 68.
Those were solid scores on a warm day in
Maui when the trade winds made the flagsticks bend like fishing
poles. Ten of the 33 players in the winners-only field failed
to break par, and Steve Lowery and Jim Carter checked in with
80s.
“I played pretty well through the elements,”
Leonard said.
Woods, in his first tournament of the year
after his record-breaking 2000 season, made only one glaring mistake,
but it cost him. Trying to hit a driver off the fairway on the
par-5 ninth, he pulled it into waist-high weeds and had to make
a 4-footer to save bogey.
Still, the defending champion controlled
the trajectory of his shots beautifully in the wind and wound
up with a 70, his 48th consecutive round at par or better on the
PGA Tour.
“The tougher the better,” Woods
said of the conditions on the Plantation Course at Kapalua. “It
weeds out the guys who aren't hitting it good.”
Leonard missed the Mercedes a year ago after
failing to win a PGA Tour event for the first time since 1995,
so the Texas Open champ was thrilled to be in Maui. He played
like it on a warm, windy day, despite a couple of long three-putts
for bogeys on the front nine.
“The holes that I'm supposed to score
low on, I feel like I did, with little wedges and things like
that,” Leonard said.
Els, a semifinalist in Match Play last week,
has again given himself a good chance at Kapalua. A year ago,
he matched Woods shot for shot until losing on the second hole
of a playoff when Woods made a 40-foot birdie putt.
The Big Easy took his lumps on the par-5
fifth by misjudging the wind and not clearing a 100-foot gorge
in front of the green. He made up for it on the 633-yard closing
hole with a 5-iron from 250 yards into 6 feet for eagle.
It was a solid round for Els, considering
he missed birdie putts of 10, 5 and 12 feet on the final five
holes.
It wasn't a horrible start for Woods, either.
The wind was evident from the start, when
Woods played a simple flop shot from just over the green, about
20 feet behind the flag. Even over such a short distance, his
chip faded into the wind, landing 6 feet short.
He made the putt for par, just like he seemed
to do throughout last year while winning nine times, including
three straight majors.
Woods drove the 398-yard sixth hole and
two-putted from 65 feet to get to 2 under and appeared to be poised
to quickly make his way up the leaderboard.
From the fairway on No. 9, straight into
the wind, he pulled his driver into bushes so thick that Woods
hit a provisional in case he couldn't find it.
He found his ball, along with a dozen others
in the same area. From there, he hacked out into a bunker, came
up short of the green from the sand and walked away with a bogey
on a hole where he figured to make birdie.
Like Els, Woods missed several medium-length
birdie putts in the closing holes but finished with a downhill,
70-foot chip that stopped 3 feet behind the hole. The wind caused
him to back away, but he holed it for birdie.
Four players were at 4-under 69 — Billy
Andrade and Stewart Cink, and first-time winners Rory Sabbatini
of South Africa and Michael Clark.
Mike Weir of Canada, who won the World Golf
Championship in Spain and only started hitting balls this week
for the first time in a month, was the first player off and finished
at 3-under 70, along with Hal Sutton and David Toms.
Phil Mickelson had a 72, while David Duval
had a 73.
Leonard has never been among the longest
hitters on tour, just a good thinker. He made some changes in
his swing during December, playing the ball farther up in his
stance to eliminate some timing issues.
That was done to contend more often, no
matter what Woods is up to.
“I don't think I've ever let another
player really affect what I did to prepare,” Leonard said.
“Now, maybe if it gets to a point, I should. As of right
now, I'm going to be stubborn and say, 'I need to figure out what
it takes for me to play well.'
“It's a constant search. I'll continue
to search.”
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