Monday, August 28, 2000
Always worth watching
By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer
Here's why Tiger Woods is always worth watching, even Monday night,
in a made-for-TV event against a guy he could beat in his sleep:
Woods has become the best show not just in sports, but all of
TV. You can't take your eyes off him, even for a minute.
On Saturday, he's walking up the 18th with Phil Mickelson and
lapping the field. It's not a major. Bob May and his slingshot
are playing another PGA Tour event halfway across the country.
So only golf junkies are supposed to be watching the final minutes
of the telecast from the NEC Invitational, and Mickelson has just
given them a jolt by wielding his 8-iron like a scythe to cut
the ball out of the rough and land it just short of the 18th green.
Then Woods takes his turn.
What follows is something straight out of Carl the deranged greenskeeper's
“Cinderella Boy” speech from “Caddyshack.”
Only this is on CBS — live.
“Tiger's in really, really nasty rough ... he's got 184 yards
to the pin ... pitching wedge (!) ... to 8 feet (!!!) .”
After one of the most remarkable shots anybody's ever seen, Woods
misses the birdie putt. And still shoots 67.
Then Sunday comes, he plays a few holes, eats a cheeseburger during
the rain delay, rifles his last shot through near-darkness to
two feet, and shoots another 67. He wins, breaks another scoring
record, makes another acceptance speech. And the only difference
between this Sunday and last — besides rain — is Woods
overnighting in Akron so he can do a clinic in the morning.
Then he is supposed to hop on his private jet, steal a nap on
the way to Palm Desert, Calif., and play in yet another of those
well-paying exhibitions golf pros use to make ends meet.
Woods being Woods, this one has a title, “Battle of Bighorn,”
and it will pay considerably more than most exhibitions. And instead
of playing in a foursome with the usual corporate chieftains,
Woods will be playing mano a mano with Sergio Garcia.
The best thing to be said about “Battle of Bighorn”
is it sounded like a good idea at the time. When ABC cut the deal
last spring, Woods was just coming off a streak of six straight
wins and Garcia was still his most attractive rival. Of course,
back then the young Spaniard still had game and Woods still had
rivals.
So we already know how the battle ends: Woods wins. He always
does. And maybe the only suspense is what kind of ratings “Bighorn”
draws. But what else are you going to watch?
“Big Brother” on CBS? “Mysterious Ways” on
NBC? “Nitro” on TNT? Padres at Cubs?
Catch Woods instead and get the best they have to offer, anyway.
What you give up in suspense and costuming, you get back in honest
showmanship. And the chance to maybe see something no one's ever
done before.
Ali was like that, but TV was just getting started then. Jordan
was like that, too. The Bulls might be playing the Clippers in
February and there wasn't a motivational tool in sight. His team
was resting comfortably atop the regular-season standings and
Jordan might be far enough ahead in the scoring race to take a
night off. But he never did. He understood that to make the biggest
shots at the biggest moments, he had to make them at the smaller
ones, too.
Woods is like that. Only he's starting to deliver those moments
in such a compressed time frame that anybody who blinks risks
missing something. The networks have stopped taking chances.
Only four years ago, Woods was playing in the final group of yet
another golf tournament going down on Sunday. That was the U.S.
Amateur. He's raised his game several levels since, but the competition
looks the same. The problem is that the guys with enough talent
to challenge Woods don't have the heart, and vice versa. No one
is willing to outwork him.
En route to a 61 on Friday that sent shivers down the spine of
everybody who has to play him, Woods walked off the 15th tee and
into a clearing. He found a gap in the tree line and stood there
transfixed, staring off in the distance at a TV tower with a cloth
hanging off it like the tail of a kite. He was intent on gauging
a breeze almost no one else felt. Only then did he step back on
the tee and hit his drive.
That's what his competition is up against. A friend who should
have copyrighted the idea said the “Battle at Bighorn”
would be more interesting if Woods played against a different
pro at each hole. Someday soon. Or if Garcia proves as good at
impersonating his fellow pros as Peter Jacobsen, maybe sooner.
Regardless, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem will be watching
because he has plenty at stake. Finchem is about to open negotiations
on a new TV contract. At the moment, he likes his position.
“If he does this six or eight times a year for the next five
years, at some point do people get bored?” Finchem said.
“Maybe. That's not the case right now.”
———
Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated
Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org
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